Interaction of H2-receptor antagonists, cimetidine and ranitidine with microsomal drug metabolizing and other systems in liver.

Cimetidine has been demonstrated to impair microsomal oxidative drug metabolizing and other enzyme systems in mouse liver. The inhibition is rapid, occurring after a single administration and also found to be dose-dependent. It is more significant after daily administration for 15 days. Enzyme inhibition by ranitidine, another H2-receptor antagonist was comparatively less at all the concentrations of the drug tested. An increased activity of alkaline phosphatase, glutamate-pyruvate and glutamate-oxaloacetate transaminase was observed in liver with cimetidine administration, whereas that of lactate and succinate dehydrogenase was inhibited only after administration of 2000 mg cimetidine per kg body weight. Except alkaline phosphatase other enzymes were unaffected after ranitidine administration. Analysis of lipid classes in liver showed that phospholipid, triglycerides and free fatty acid contents were significantly decreased in drug administration while cholesterol level showed very little or no change. Microsomal and soluble protein contents were significantly increased which probably indicate that the inhibition in the enzyme activity by histamine H2-receptor antagonists may be a lipid mediated process and not resulted from the reduced availability of the enzyme protein.