Enhanced Clearance of Specifically Bound Digoxin from Human Myocardial and Skeletal Muscle Samples by Specific Digoxin Antibody Fragments

Abstract

The effect of digoxin antibody fragments (Fab) on clearance of specifically bound digoxin from its specific receptor (Na, K-ATPase) was studied in human heart left ventricle (LV) and vastus lateralis skeletal muscle (SK) samples obtained postmortem. Initially, [3H]digoxin was bound to samples at conditions giving high relative occupancy of receptor. Half-life (t1/2) for its net release from LV in buffer was 32.2, 6.7, and 0.9 h at 0 degrees, 30 degrees, and 37 degrees C, respectively. For SK, t1/2 was 5.4 h in buffer at 30 degrees C. Inhibition of rebinding of digoxin by addition of specific digoxin Fab (5 x 10(-7) M) or excess unlabeled digoxin (1 x 10(-4) M) to buffer at 30 degrees C increased net release rate for specifically bound digoxin 2.5- to 3.0-fold in heart and SK. [3H]Digoxin was also bound to samples at conditions giving low relative occupancy. Samples were subsequently washed in buffer containing 5 x 10(-7) M specific digoxin Fab for 16 h at 30 degrees C. This wash reduced occupancy of receptors by digoxin from 10 to 0.5% in LV and from 9 to 0.3% in SK, respectively. At variance with wash at 37 degrees C, this procedure allowed subsequent vanadate-facilitated complete quantification of Na,K-ATPase by [3H]ouabain binding; values were 378 +/- 13 and 370 +/- 12 pmol/g wet weight (p greater than 0.6) in LV and 309 +/- 19 and 315 +/- 16 pmol/g wet weight (p greater than 0.7) in SK with and without previous wash, respectively (mean +/- SEM, n = 12).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)