Lack of interaction between digoxin and quinidine in cultured heart cells

Previous investigations have raised the possibility that the digoxin-quinidine interaction is associated with a reduction in the positive inotropic effect of digoxin due to displacement of digoxin from cardiac as well as skeletal muscle. To circumvent some of the complexities presented by intact animal models, this interaction was investigated in cultured chick embryo ventricular cells. Quinidine, even at relatively high concentrations (10(-4)--2 x 10(-3) M), did not significantly affect positive inotropic effects of digoxin and did not protect against cellular contracture induced by toxic digoxin concentrations, despite preincubation of cells with quinidine for 60 min. The effects of digoxin on monovalent cation transport, as judged by active uptake of the K analog 86Rb, were also not altered by 10(-4) M to 2 x 10(-3) M quinidine. These data suggest that quinidine does not displace digoxin from Na, K adenosine triphosphatase binding sites in this preparation. Although these data must be extrapolated to the intact animal with caution, our findings suggest that changes digoxin clearance are more likely of primary importance in the digoxin-quinidine interaction, and indicate that the approximately 2-fold increase in serum digoxin concentration observed after addition of quinidine would be expected to have direct effects on myocardial cells comparable with those seen with increased digoxin concentration in the absence of quinidine.