Influence of heat-treatment on rabbit liver-ferritin kinetics

Rabbit liver-ferritin was purified by heat-treatment and immuno-affinity chromatography or by immuno-affinity chromatography alone. The ferritin was labelled with 125I and injected into rabbits. Significant differences between the two preparations were observed in the rate of clearance from plasma. The biological half-life in vivo of the heat-treated samples was 5.3 +/- 0.5 min, and of non-heated preparations 8.5 +/- 0.5 min, thereby showing a significant (P less than 0.001) affect on the final preparation of heat-treatment during the isolation procedure. After the first 10-15 min period the clearance rate of a slower disappearing fraction was not dependent on the purification method used. The smaller amount of that fraction present in the heat-treated preparation, however, implies a selective loss of ferritin forms with a slow plasma clearance during the isolation procedure that includes heat-treatment.