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Bioavailability Study of Berberine and the Enhancing Effects of TPGS on Intestinal Absorption in Rats

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Abstract

Berberine chloride (BBR) is a natural isoquinoline alkaloid extracted from medicinal herbs. It has been reported that the intestinal absorption of BBR is very low. In this study, the absolute bioavailability of BBR was studied, and the enhancing effects of d-α-tocopheryl polyethylene glycol 1000 succinate (TPGS) on intestinal absorption were investigated in rats. BBR injection was administrated via the femoral vein at a dose of 1.0 mg kg−1 in intravenous group, and BBR oral formulations were administrated by oral gavage at a dose of 100 mg kg−1 in BBR control (control) group and BBR-TPGS (test) group, respectively. The result showed that BBR had a very low absolute bioavailability of 0.68%, and TPGS could enhance intestinal absorption of BBR significantly. TPGS at a concentration of 2.5% could improve peak concentration (C max) and area under the curve (AUC0–36) of BBR by 2.9 and 1.9 times, respectively. The absorption enhancing ability of TPGS may be due to its ability to affect the biological activity of P-glycoprotein and thereby reduce the excretion of absorbed BBR into the intestinal lumen. This study indicated that absolute bioavailability of BBR was 0.68% in rats, and TPGS was a good absorption enhancer capable of enhancing intestinal absorption of BBR significantly.

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Acknowledgment

This work is supported by the Liaoning Provincial Science and Technology Department (2009ZX09301-012).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pharmaceutics, School of Pharmacy, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Wenhua Road 103, Shenyang, Liaoning Province, 110016, People’s Republic of China

    Wei Chen, Yu-Qiang Miao, Dong-Jiao Fan, Shen-Shen Yang, Xia Lin, Ling-Kuo Meng & Xing Tang

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  1. Wei Chen
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  2. Yu-Qiang Miao
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  3. Dong-Jiao Fan
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  7. Xing Tang
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Correspondence to Xing Tang.

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Chen, W., Miao, YQ., Fan, DJ. et al. Bioavailability Study of Berberine and the Enhancing Effects of TPGS on Intestinal Absorption in Rats. AAPS PharmSciTech 12, 705–711 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1208/s12249-011-9632-z

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