A New Technic for the Production of an in Vivo Labeled Fibrinogen

The fact that in vitro labeled proteins, as a rule, exhibit faster turnover rates than in vivo labeled materials led us to explore means of obtaining in vivo labeled fibrinogen of high specific activity. It was found that defibrination of the rat provides a stimulus for the liver to regenerate fibrinogen at an accelerated rate. Administration of seleno⁷⁵ methionine shortly after thrombin-induced defibrination of the animal resulted in the incorporation of large quantities of the label. The rate of incorporation was further increased if the amino acid was administered as a slow infusion during the entire period of fibrinogen regeneration. In addition, prior nephrectomy of the animal would appear to result in a slight increase in specific activity of the fibrinogen preparation obtained.

The results of these studies indicate that defibrination, nephrectomy, and the prolonged infusion of the labeled amino acid selenomethionine provided us with a technic for obtaining a biosynthetically labeled, γ-emitting, fibrinogen preparation of high specific activity.