Abstract

We present a sub-compartmentalized model of drug distribution in tissue that extends existing approaches based on the well-stirred tissue model. It is specified in terms of di®erential equations that explicitly account for the drug concentration in erythrocytes, plasma, interstitial and cellular space. Assuming, in addition, steady state drug distribution and by lumping the different sub-compartments, established models to predict tissue-plasma partition coe±cients can be derived in an intriguingly simple way. This direct link is exploited to explicitly construct and parameterize the sub-compartmentalized model for moderate to strong bases, acids, neutrals and zwitterions. The derivation highlights the contributions of the different tissue constituents and provides a simple and transparent framework for the construction of novel tissue distribution models.