Hypotensive effect of the hydralazine--acetone hydrazone in conscious rabbits: evidence for its back-conversion to hydralazine in vivo.

The hydralazine--acetone hydrazone (HAH) has previously been identified as a metabolite of hydralazine (H) in humans. We compared the hypotensive effects of HAH and H in groups of hypertensive rabbits. Both compounds caused a dose-dependent depressor response, with a potency ratio of HAH to H of approximately 0.2. Upon their intravenous administration to anephric rabbits, both H and HAH produced sustained concentrations in plasma of the H-pyruvic acid hydrazone, demonstrating that back-conversion of HAH to H occurred in vivo. We conclude that HAH is hydrolyzed in vivo to yield parent H. The levels of the H-metabolite, the pyruvic acid hydrazone, suggest that the hypotensive effect of HAH could be explained entirely by generation of H in vivo. This combined pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic approach can be applied to other H-hydrazones to evaluate their backconversion to H in vivo.