Vol. 289, Issue 3, 1191-1195, June 1999

Pharmacokinetic Advantage of Intra-arterial Cyclosporin A Delivery to Vascularly Isolated Rabbit Forelimb. II. Dose Dependence¹

Mansour V. Shirbacheh, Thomas A. Harralson, Jon W. Jones, Warren C. Breidenbach, Anthony W. Jevans, Claudio Maldonado, John H. Barker and Scott A. Gruber

Divisions of Plastic and Reconstructive (M.V.S., T.A.H., C.M., J.H.B.), General (J.W.J.), and Hand and Microsurgery (W.C.B.), Department of Surgery, and the Department of Pathology (A.W.J.), University of Louisville School of Medicine, Louisville, Kentucky; and the Division of Immunology and Organ Transplantation (S.A.G.), Department of Surgery, University of Texas at Houston Health Science Center, Houston, Texas

A vascularly isolated rabbit forelimb model simulating conditions of composite tissue allografting was used to determine the regional pharmacokinetic advantage achievable in extremity tissue components during i.a. cyclosporin A (CSA) administration. CSA was infused continuously via osmotic minipump into the right brachial artery of New Zealand rabbits at multiple doses ranging from 1.0 to 8.0 mg/kg/day. On day 6, CSA concentrations were measured in aortic whole blood, as well as in skin, muscle, bone, and bone marrow samples from both right and left forelimbs. The variation of right-sided mean CSA concentrations with dose was tissue dependent and saturable in the case of skin and bone, whereas left-sided tissue concentrations correlated significantly with systemic blood levels. At 1.0 mg/kg/day, there were no significant differences between right and left mean CSA concentrations for all four tissues examined. However, with a doubling of the i.a. dose, huge increases in local tissue CSA concentrations were produced with only very modest increases in systemic whole-blood and tissue drug levels, resulting in a 4-fold regional advantage (right/left ratio of CSA concentrations) in bone and bone marrow, 7-fold in muscle, and 14-fold in skin. With further dose increases to 8.0 mg/kg/day, the regional advantage decreased to 4-fold in skin, increased to 9-fold in bone marrow, remained relatively constant in bone, and initially decreased and then increased to 9-fold in muscle. These favorable pharmacokinetic results suggest that reduced, local doses of CSA might be useful in preventing extremity composite tissue allograft rejection with decreased systemic drug exposure.