DIGITALIS 'RECEPTORS' DURING CHRONIC DIGOXIN TREATMENT

doi:10.1111/j.1440-1681.1984.tb00266.x

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Wiley InterScience

Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology and Physiology

Volume 11 Issue 3, Pages 285 - 290

Published Online: 28 Jun 2007

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DIGITALIS 'RECEPTORS' DURING CHRONIC DIGOXIN TREATMENT

Pier Luigi Malini ¹ ^, ² , Enrico Strocchi ¹ , Anna Maria Marata ¹ Ettore Ambrosioni ¹

¹ Department of Clinical Pharmacology, S. Orsola University Hospital, Bologna, Italy

Correspondence to ² Pier Luigi Malini, MD, Department of Clinical Pharmacology, S. Orsola University Hospital, 40138 Bologna, Italy.

KEYWORDS

digitalis • digoxin • erythrocytes • [Na⁺-K⁺] Mg-dependent ATPase

ABSTRACT

1. The effect of digoxin treatment on Mg-dependent [Na⁺-K⁺]-ATPase (the receptor for cardiac glycosides) was assessed by comparison of intracellular Na⁺-K⁺, ⁸⁶Rb uptake and number of digoxin binding sites in the erythrocytes of 138 patients on long term digoxin and of 133 control subjects. The parameters were also assessed in thirty-two patients followed longitudinally for 1 y.

2. The results indicate that the cells adapt to chronic exposure to 'therapeutic' dosage of digoxin with an overcompensatory synthesis of new receptors, a possible mechanism through which the normal intraerythrocytic ionic equilibrium is re-established.

3. The process of synthesis of new receptors appears to be completed in erythrocytes in a period of 4 months after the start of digoxin treatment.

Received 28 May 1983

DIGITAL OBJECT IDENTIFIER (DOI)

10.1111/j.1440-1681.1984.tb00266.x About DOI