STUDIES ON BIOLOGIC MEMBRANE PERMEATION KINETICS AND ACUTE TOXICITY OF DRUGS BY MEANS OF GOLDFISH

¹ Biopharmaceutics Laboratory, School of Pharmacy, State University of New York, Buffalo, New York

The present investigation illustrates the exceptional utility of goldfish for studies of the permeability of biologic membranes to certain drugs, and for determinations of environmental factors, such as pH, upon drug absorption. The method basically involves determination of time of death of intact fish as a function of drug concentration in the aqueous medium. The fact that no chemical analyses are required, and that the environment can be well controlled with respect to such factors as drug concentration, pH, osmotic gradient, etc., is particularly advantageous. The absorbing membranes of goldfish have permeability characteristics similar to those of mammalian species, in that they act as a lipoid barrier allowing preferential passage, by passive diffusion, of drugs in their lipoid-soluble, nonionized form.