pharmacokinetics Pharmacokinetics (from Ancient Greek ''pharmakon'' "drug" and ''kinetikos'' "moving, putting in motion"; see chemical kinetics), sometimes abbreviated as PK, is a branch of pharmacology dedicated to describing how the body affects a specific su ...

, a compartment is a defined volume of

body fluids Body fluids, bodily fluids, or biofluids, sometimes body liquids, are liquids within the Body (biology), body of an organism. In lean healthy adult men, the total body water is about 60% (60–67%) of the total Human body weight, body weight; it ...

, typically of the

human body The human body is the entire structure of a Human, human being. It is composed of many different types of Cell (biology), cells that together create Tissue (biology), tissues and subsequently Organ (biology), organs and then Organ system, org ...

, but also those of other animals with multiple

organ systems An organ system is a biological system consisting of a group of organs that work together to perform one or more bodily functions. Each organ has a specialized role in an organism body, and is made up of distinct tissues. Humans There ar ...

. The meaning in this area of study is different from the concept of anatomic compartments, which are bounded by fasciae, the sheath of

fibrous tissue Connective tissue is one of the four primary types of animal tissue, a group of cells that are similar in structure, along with epithelial tissue, muscle tissue, and nervous tissue. It develops mostly from the mesenchyme, derived from the mesode ...

that enclose

mammal A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the Class (biology), class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three ...

ian organs. Instead, the concept focuses on broad types of fluidic systems. This analysis is used in attempts to mathematically describe distribution of small molecules throughout organisms with multiple compartments. Various

multi-compartment model A multi-compartment model is a type of mathematical model used for describing the way materials or energies are transmitted among the ''compartments'' of a system. Sometimes, the physical system that we try to model in equations is too complex, so ...

s can be used in the areas of pharmacokinetics and

pharmacology Pharmacology is the science of drugs and medications, including a substance's origin, composition, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, therapeutic use, and toxicology. More specifically, it is the study of the interactions that occur betwee ...

, in the support of efforts in

drug discovery In the fields of medicine, biotechnology, and pharmacology, drug discovery is the process by which new candidate medications are discovered. Historically, drugs were discovered by identifying the active ingredient from traditional remedies or ...

, and in environmental science. In humans and related organisms, there are five major body compartments: the

blood plasma Blood plasma is a light Amber (color), amber-colored liquid component of blood in which blood cells are absent, but which contains Blood protein, proteins and other constituents of whole blood in Suspension (chemistry), suspension. It makes up ...

interstitial fluid In cell biology, extracellular fluid (ECF) denotes all body fluid outside the Cell (biology), cells of any multicellular organism. Body water, Total body water in healthy adults is about 50–60% (range 45 to 75%) of total body weight; women ...

fat tissue Adipose tissue (also known as body fat or simply fat) is a loose connective tissue composed mostly of adipocytes. It also contains the stromal vascular fraction (SVF) of cells including preadipocytes, fibroblasts, vascular endothelial cells and ...

intracellular fluid The human body and even its individual body fluids may be conceptually divided into various fluid compartments, which, although not literally fascial compartment, anatomic compartments, do represent a real division in terms of how portions of the ...

s, and

transcellular fluid In cell biology, extracellular fluid (ECF) denotes all body fluid outside the cells of any multicellular organism. Total body water in healthy adults is about 50–60% (range 45 to 75%) of total body weight; women and the obese typically ha ...

s, the latter of which includes fluids in the

pleural The pleural cavity, or pleural space (or sometimes intrapleural space), is the potential space between the pulmonary pleurae, pleurae of the pleural sac that surrounds each lung. A small amount of serous fluid, serous pleural fluid is maintained ...

(

peritoneal The peritoneum is the serous membrane forming the lining of the abdominal cavity or coelom in amniotes and some invertebrates, such as annelids. It covers most of the intra-abdominal (or coelomic) organs, and is composed of a layer of mesotheli ...

) cavity. Page 102 The relative percents of body mass of these are included in the following table.

References

{{Pharmacology Pharmacokinetics

See also

References