Effects of hyperbaric oxygen on the pharmacokinetics of vitamin C in mice

Objective To investigate the effects of hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) on the pharmacokinetics of vitamin C.Methods Two hundred and forty mice were randomly divided into 2 groups,the HBO group and the control group,each consisting of 120 animals.The 2 groups of animals received gavage of vitamin C with a single-dose of 3g/kg.The animals in the HBO group were immediately put into the hyperbaric oxygen chamber and maintained at a pressure of 0.1 MPa for a duration of 20 min.The time used for compression and decompression was all 5 min.The animals in the control group were just given a single gavage of vitamin C.Ten animals from each group were chosen at different time points both before and after drug administration,for collection of blood samples from the eyeballs.Concentrations of vitamin C in serum were monitored with high performance liquid chromatography,and pharmacokinetic indices were calculated accordingly.Results The main pharmacokinetic parameters of the HBO group were as follows:AIC ( - 26.40 ),t1/2 ( 5.4 h),Tpeak (0.8 h),Cmas ( 17.9 mg/L),AUC[126.2( mg · h)/L],while the corresponding results of the control group were AIC ( - 3.8 ),t1/2 ( 11.6h),Tpeak ( 1.1 h),Cmax ( 11.2 mg/L),AUC [155.5 ( mg · h)/L ].Conclusions HBO could obviously accelerate the absorption of vitamin C and seemed to have significant effect on pharmacokinetic parameters. Key words: Hyperbaric oxygen;  Vitamin C;  Pharmacokinetics;  High performance liquid chromatography