Effects of Glipizide on the Pharmacokinetics of Carvedilol after Oral and Intravenous Administration in Rats

This study was designed to investigate the effects of glipizide on the pharmacokinetics of carvedilol after oral or intravenous administration of carvedilol in rats. Clinically carvedilol and glipizide can be prescribed for treatment of cardiovascular diseases as the complications of diabetes, and then, Carvedilol and glipizide are all substrates of CYP2C9 enzymes. Carvedilol was administered orally or intravenously without or with oral administration of glipizide to rats. The effects of glipizide on cytochrome P450(CYP) 2C9 activity and P-gp activity were also evaluated. Glipizide inhibited CYP2C9 activity in a concentration-dependent manner with 50% inhibition concentration ($IC_{50}$) of 18 ${\mu}M$. Compared with the control group, the area under the plasma concentration-time curve (AUC) was significantly increased by 33.0%, and the peak concentration ($C_{max}$) was significantly increased by 50.0% in the presence of glipizide after oral administration of carvedilol. Consequently, the relative bioavailability (R.B.) of carvedilol was increased by 1.13- to 1.33-fold and the absolute bioavailability (A.B.) of carvedilol in the presence of glipizide was increased by 36.8%. After intravenous administration, compared to the control, glipizide could not significantly change the pharmacokinetic parameters of carvedilol. Therefore, the enhanced oral bioavailability of carvedilol may mainly result from inhibition of CYP2C9-mediated metabolism rather than both P-gp-mediated effl ux in the intestinal or in the liver and renal elimination of carvedilol by glipizide.