An Effect of Chlorpromazine on Rat Mitochondrial Membranes

Abstract

THE phenothiazines used in therapy appear to affect membranes in many biological systems. Thus, Greig et al. ¹, among others, have shown that promethazine, a phenothiazine type of antihistaminic drug, prevents the usual deterioration of red blood cells during storage. This presumably is a membrane effect. The frog gastrocnemius muscle swells when placed in distilled water. This water imbibition can be partially prevented by chlorpromazine². A few in vivo experiments may be cited as well. Thus, the metrazol-enhanced passage of dyes into the brain is antagonized by chlorpromazine³ ; the absorption of sugar from the intestine⁴ and drugs from subcutaneous depots⁵ are both retarded by chlorpromazine. Close inspection of the entire literature dealing with the actions of chlorpromazine on all types of biological systems revealed that most of the test systems employed contained semipermeable membranes of one type or another (cellular or sub-cellular). For this reason the possibility should be considered that these structures are the primary loci of attack by the drug, while the numerous other reported effects may be secondary.