Bone distribution study of anti leprotic drug clofazimine in rat bone marrow cells by a sensitive reverse phase liquid chromatography method

The aim of the present study was to investigate the distribution of clofazimine (CLF) in rat bone marrow cells by a validated reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography. CLF and chlorzoxazone (I.S) were extracted by liquid–liquid extraction from plasma and rat bone marrow cells. The chromatographic separation was performed in isocratic mode by the mobile phase consisting of 10 mM ammonium formate (pH 3.0 with formic acid) and acetonitrile in a ratio of 50:50 (v/v). The method was accurate and precise in the linear range of 15.6–2000.0 ng/mL with a correlation coefficient (r2) of 0.996 and 0.995 in rat plasma and bone marrow cells, respectively. After single oral dose of 20 mg/kg, the maximum concentration of CLF in plasma and bone marrow cells were obtained at 12 h with the concentrations of 593.2 and 915.4 ng/mL, respectively. The AUC0−t and mean elimination half life (t1/2) of CLF in bone marrow cells were 54339.02 ng*h/mL and 52.46 h, respectively, which signified the low body clearance and high distribution of CLF in bone marrow cells. The single oral dose pharmacokinetic investigation was confirmed the CLF endure for a long period in rat due to high distribution in various tissues. The developed method was successfully applied to the estimation of the pharmacokinetic parameters of CLF in plasma and bone marrow cells after administration of single oral dose of 20 mg/kg to rats.