DEGRADATION OF HUMAN I125 INTERFERON-ALPHA BY ISOLATED PERFUSED RABBIT KIDNEY AND LIVER

  • 1 January 1983
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 101  (6) , 857-872
Abstract
Rabbit livers and kidneys were isolated and perfused with homologous blood. After equilibration, human interferon .alpha. (IFN-.alpha.) labeled with 125I and an excess of cold IFN-.alpha. were added and blood samples were withdrawn at predetermined times. Protein-bound and acid-soluble radioactivity together with biological (antiviral vs. vesicular stomatitis virus) activity were measured. Evidently, although liver exerts a minimal catabolism, the kidney filters and breaks down a considerable amount of IFN-.alpha.. The parallelism between protein-bound radioactivity and biological activity decay curves indicates that IFN carefully labeled with 125I can be reliably used for metabolic investigations.