Gastroparesis is a syndrome characterized by delayed gastric emptying, in the absence of mechanical obstruction of the stomach. Diabetes mellitus (DM) is responsible for almost one third of cases of gastroparesis. Gastroparesis typically develops after at least 10 years of evolution of DM, and often is associated with other complications. The present study aimed to investigate the safety, reliability of Metformin and possible drug interaction with Itopride when they were administered as combination treatment. The study was conducted on healthy Wistar and streptozotocin induced diabetic rats. A simple and sensitive high performance liquid chromatographic method was developed for the simultaneous estimation of Metformin and Itopride in rat plasma and also to estimate possible pharmacokinetic parameters of these drugs after oral administration. There was no significant difference in the Metformin alone and combination with Itopride and Itopride alone and combination with Metformin on day 1 and day 8 respectively. There is no significant change in tmax, cmax, AUC (0 – t) and AUC (o-inf), t½, Cl/f and V/f on day 1 and day 8 respectively in both diabetic and healthy rats. From the above results it can be concluded that the concurrent administration of these two drugs have potential benefit in the treatment of Diabetes and Gastroparesis. In addition, due to their insignificant pharmacokinetic interaction the combinational therapy can be safe and highly advantageous in Gastro paresis patients with diabetes.
