Metabolism PBPK models

Note This is a conceptual representation of a physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) model for a hypothetical chemical substance. The chemical substance is shown to be absorbed via the skin, by inhalation, or by ingestion, metabolized in the liver, and excreted in the urine or by exhalation. 

Physiologically Based Phamiacokinetic (PBPK) Model—Comprised of a series of compartments representing organs or tissue groups with realistic weights and blood flows. These models require a variety of physiological information tissue volumes, blood flow rates to tissues, cardiac output, alveolar ventilation rates and, possibly membrane permeabilities. The models also utilize biochemical information such as air/blood partition coefficients, and metabolic parameters. PBPK models are also called biologically based tissue dosimetry models. 

No data were located concerning whether pharmacokinetics of endosulfan in children are different from adults. There are no adequate data to determine whether endosulfan or its metabolites can cross the placenta. Studies in animals addressing these issues would provide valuable information. Although endosulfan has been detected in human milk (Lutter et al. 1998), studies in animals showed very little accumulation of endosulfan residues in breast milk (Gorbach et al. 1968 Indraningsih et al. 1993), which is consistent with the rapid elimination of endosulfan from tissues and subsequent excretion via feces and urine. There are no PBPK models for endosulfan in either adults or children. There is no information to evaluate whether absorption, distribution, metabolism, or excretion of endosulfan in children is different than in adults. 

PBPK models have also been used to explain the rate of excretion of inhaled trichloroethylene and its major metabolites (Bogen 1988 Fisher et al. 1989, 1990, 1991 Ikeda et al. 1972 Ramsey and Anderson 1984 Sato et al. 1977). One model was based on the results of trichloroethylene inhalation studies using volunteers who inhaled 100 ppm trichloroethylene for 4 horns (Sato et al. 1977). The model used first-order kinetics to describe the major metabolic pathways for trichloroethylene in vessel-rich tissues (brain, liver, kidney), low perfused muscle tissue, and poorly perfused fat tissue and assumed that the compartments were at equilibrium. A value of 104 L/hour for whole-body metabolic clearance of trichloroethylene was predicted. Another PBPK model was developed to fit human metabolism data to urinary metabolites measured in chronically exposed workers (Bogen 1988). This model assumed that pulmonary uptake is continuous, so that the alveolar concentration is in equilibrium with that in the blood and all tissue compartments, and was an expansion of a model developed to predict the behavior of styrene (another volatile organic compound) in four tissue groups (Ramsey and Andersen 1984). 

Sato et al. (1991) expanded their earlier PBPK model to account for differences in body weight, body fat content, and sex and applied it to predicting the effect of these factors on trichloroethylene metabolism and excretion. Their model consisted of seven compartments (lung, vessel rich tissue, vessel poor tissue, muscle, fat tissue, gastrointestinal system, and hepatic system) and made various assumptions about the metabolic pathways considered. First-order Michaelis-Menten kinetics were assumed for simplicity, and the first metabolic product was assumed to be chloral hydrate, which was then converted to TCA and trichloroethanol. Further assumptions were that metabolism was limited to the hepatic compartment and that tissue and organ volumes were related to body weight. The metabolic parameters, (the scaling constant for the maximum rate of metabolism) and (the Michaelis constant), were those determined for trichloroethylene in a study by Koizumi (1989) and are presented in Table 2-3. 

Metabolic differences betw een humans and other animals may account for some of the interspecies differences in specific organ toxicity of trichloroethylene (see below). Among humans, sexual differences due mainly to the effects of body fat content on trichloroethylene absorption are expected based on PBPK modeling (see Section 2.3.5). 

Comparative Toxicokinetics. In humans, the targets for trichloroethylene toxicity are the liver, kidney, cardiovascular system, and nervous system. Experimental animal studies support this conclusion, although the susceptibilities of some targets, such as the liver, appear to differ between rats and mice. The fact that these two species could exhibit such different effects allows us to question which species is an appropriate model for humans. A similar situation occurred in the cancer studies, where results in rats and mice had different outcomes. The critical issue appears to be differences in metabolism of trichloroethylene across species (Andersen et al. 1980 Buben and O Flaherty 1985 Filser and Bolt 1979 Prout et al. 1985 Stott et al. 1982). Further studies relating the metabolism of humans to those of rats and mice are needed to confirm the basis for differences in species and sex susceptibility to trichloroethylene s toxic effects and in estimating human heath effects from animal data. Development and validation of PBPK models is one approach to interspecies comparisons of data. 

In chemical-specific parameters used for PBPK modeling, the metabolic rate constant is crucial to the accuracy of modeling results in many cases. For some pyrethroids, hydrolysis in intestine and serum has a significant role in the metabolism of the compound in mammals besides oxidation and ester cleavage in liver, which is the most important organ for detoxification of many chemicals. 

Fig. 6 Seven-compartment PBPK model for deltamethrin Km represents metabolic rate constant (Kml carboxylesterase in blood, Km2 cytochrome P450 in liver, Km3 carboxylesterase in liver, KmFcc rate constant in feces) [49]...

If the neurotoxicity of /7-hexane was potentiated in this study by co-exposure to acetone, the level of n-hexane alone required to produce these effects would be higher than 58 ppm and the MRL level would be higher. Results from simulations with a PBPK model that accurately predicted /7-hexane blood and 2,5-hexanedione urine levels (Perbellini et al. 1986, 1990a) indicate that at concentrations of 50 ppm, the rate-limiting factor in /7-hexane metabolism is delivery to the liver, not metabolic activity. This suggests that at this concentration (and at the MRL concentration of 0.6 ppm), induction of P-450 enzymes in the liver by acetone or other chemicals would not affect the rate at which 2,5-hexanedione was produced. 

The two models discussed below are derived from in vitro and in vivo rodent studies. It is important to keep in mind that these models were developed specifically to describe benzene metabolism, and as such, they may not fully consider the metabolism of phenol. PBPK models specific to phenol have yet to be developed. 

In a PBPK model that used simulations with mice, rats, and humans (Corley et al. 1990), the tissue delivered dose from equivalent concentrations of chloroform was highest in the mouse, followed by rats and then humans. The authors suggest that this behavior is predicted by the model because of the lower relative rates of metabolism, ventilation, and cardiac output (per kg of body weight) in the... 

The newer physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) models take nonlinearity of physiological processes such as chemical metabolism and excretion into consideration. At the high dose levels used in animal experiments, these mechanisms become saturated with the result that the tissues may be exposed to a different composition of pure compound and metabolites than at the low dose levels encountered in real-life human exposure. 

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