A New Route of Drug Administration: Intrauterine Delivery of Insulin and Calcitonin

Gershon Golomb*, Avi Avramoff, Amnon Hoffman

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

29 Scopus citations

Abstract

High molecular weight drugs in general, and peptides in particular, are usually delivered by parenteral route because they are poorly absorbed or degraded in the gastrointestinal tract. To optimize therapy, it is desirable to search for nonparenteral routes of administration and to deliver the drug in a controlled-release fashion. We report here on the absorption and the systemic biological effect of two peptides, insulin and calcitonin, after instillation into the uterus of the rat. Intrauterine delivery was compared to subcutaneous injections in intact and ovariectomized rats. In addition, we describe results of a preliminary study on calcitonin absorption from controlled-release matrices inserted in the rat uterus. The amount and duration of the hypoglycemic and the hypocalcemic effects induced by intrauterine delivery of insulin and calcitonin, respectively, were equivalent to those obtained after subcutaneous injections. The results were similar in intact and ovariectomized rats. It is concluded that the intrauterine administration of both insulin and calcitonin is bioequivalent to subcutaneous injection. The therapy of a number of clinically important diseases could benefit from this discovery.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)828-833
Number of pages6
JournalPharmaceutical Research
Volume10
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 1993

Keywords

  • absorption
  • calcitonin
  • controlled release
  • drug administration
  • drug delivery
  • drug implants
  • insulin
  • intrauterine
  • peptides

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