1. Investigations were carried out on isolated perfused guinea-pig livers. Different doses of tritiated ouabain, digoxin, and digitoxin were added to the perfusion medium and the subsequent plasma elimination, hepatic uptake, and biliary excretion quantitatively measured. After the perfusion, extracts of liver, bile and plasma were subjected to thin layer chromatography in order to detect the radioactively labelled glycosides and their metabolites.2. The ouabain concentration in the plasma approached the equilibrium stage within 45 minutes. At this time 40% of the administered dose had been taken up by the liver, and no further elimination occurred. The elimination curve for ouabain followed a simple exponential function. After 1 h the tissue medium (T/M) ratio was approximately 3. In bile hardly any radioactivity could be detected. Ouabain was therefore not excreted by the liver.3. Up to 80% of the digitoxin was eliminated from the plasma within 4 hours. The elimination of radioactive material for the dose range studied could be described by a hyperbolic function. The T/M ratio in the liver varied with time. At the beginning it was as high as 10 and after 4 h reduced to approximately 3. After 45-60 min the concentration of radioactive material in the bile was 500 times as high as that in the plasma. Almost 70% of the administered radioactivity was excreted with the bile within 4 hours. At the end of the perfusion almost all the identifiable substances in plasma and bile were polar metabolites, as shown by thin layer radiochromatography.4. Digoxin behaved similarly to digitoxin.5. The findings led to the following hypothesis: uptake of cardiac glycosides into the liver cells occurs by a passive diffusion process and is related to their lipid solubility. On the other hand excretion in the bile occurs in general if polar metabolites are formed in the liver cells.

Animals↗

PubMed1971

Metabolism of cardiac glycosides studied in the isolated perfused guinea-pig liver.

1. Metabolic degradation of tritiated ouabain, digoxin, and digitoxin has been investigated quantitatively using the isolated perfused guinea-pig liver. The cardiac glycosides and their metabolites have been extracted from the plasma, liver, and bile by different solvents and identified as far as possible by radio-chromatographic analysis.2. The total metabolic activity in the experimental system was localized in the liver.3. The hydrophilic glycoside ouabain could not penetrate into the metabolically active compartment of the liver and was, therefore, not degraded. The more lipophilic compound digitoxin, however, was completely degraded due to its high affinity for the metabolically active sites. The unchanged digitoxin cannot enter the aqueous bile fluid in contrast to its more hydrophilic metabolites.4. The only detectable metabolic degradation of digoxin was a conjugation with glucuronic and/or sulphuric acid, but a cleavage of sugar molecules seemed not to occur.5. In the case of digitoxin the metabolic processes are more complicated: sugar cleavage, conjugation, and C-12 hydroxylation take place simultaneously. An immediate hydroxylation of digitoxin leading to digoxin was not observed. After administration of digitoxin conjugation products as well as digoxigenin-bis-and digoxigenin-mono-digitoxosides were present in each of the compartments investigated, but the digitoxosides of digitoxigenin were intermediates in concentrations too low to be determined indicating a very high rate of conjugation and/or C-12 hydroxylation as compared with the cleavage of the digitoxoses.6. A scheme for the metabolic pathways of the cardiac glycosides based on experimental results is presented. The metabolic behaviour of each of the three compounds involved is closely related to their physicochemical properties, especially the lipid solubility.

Animals↗

PubMed1971