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Research Article Free access | 10.1172/JCI106558

Immunological protection against digoxin toxicity

Donald H. Schmidt and Vincent P. Butler Jr.

1Department of Medicine, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York 10032

Find articles by Schmidt, D. in: PubMed | Google Scholar

1Department of Medicine, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York 10032

Find articles by Butler, V. in: PubMed | Google Scholar

Published April 1, 1971 - More info

Published in Volume 50, Issue 4 on April 1, 1971
J Clin Invest. 1971;50(4):866–871. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI106558.
© 1971 The American Society for Clinical Investigation
Published April 1, 1971 - Version history
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Abstract

The lethal dose of digoxin was determined by administering 10 ml of a digoxin-saline solution to 26 nonimmunized rabbits through an ear vein over a 10 min period. Rabbits receiving less than 0.45 mg/kg digoxin showed no toxic effect, whereas all 15 rabbits that received 0.5 mg/kg developed an early arrhythmia and died within 1 hr. Moreover, eight rabbits which had been immunized with antigens unrelated to digoxin or injected with Freund's adjuvant mixture all died after receiving 0.6 mg/kg digoxin. Thus, it was concluded that 0.6 mg/kg digoxin was uniformly lethal in rabbits that had not been immunized or had received antigens unrelated to digoxin.

By way of contrast, 17 rabbits immunized with a digoxin-albumin conjugate in complete Freund's adjuvant formed digoxin-specific antibodies and survived doses of digoxin varying between 0.6 and 0.9 mg/kg. In 10 rabbits immunized with digoxin-albumin conjugates, digoxin-specific antibody titers were determined following the administration of digoxin. There was a significant fall in antibody titer.

This study indicates that rabbits protected by digoxin-specific antibodies suffer no acute adverse effects from an amount of digoxin which is uniformly lethal in nonimmunized rabbits and in rabbits immunized with other antigens.

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