Distinction between binding and endocytosis of human asialo-transferrin by the rat liver

The ability of the rat liver to bind and endocytose human asialo-transferrin was investigated in vivo. Asialo-transferrin was separated from incompletely desialylated transferrin and neuraminidase by chromatography before being labelled with (125)I. Plasma radioactivity curves and hepatic radioactivity contents measured over a 1270-fold dose range led to the following observation. At the lowest dose (0.4mug/100g body wt.), the distribution of …