To investigate the role of inner medullary collecting duct (IMCD) urea transporters in the renal concentrating mechanism, we deleted 3 kb of the UT-A urea transporter gene containing a single 140-bp exon (exon 10). Deletion of this segment selectively disrupted expression of the two known IMCD isoforms of UT-A, namely UT-A1 and UT-A3, producing UT-A1͞3 ؊/؊ mice. In isolated perfused IMCDs from UT-A1͞3 ؊/؊ mice, there was a complete absence of phloretin-sensitive or vasopressin-stimulated urea transport. On a normal protein intake (20% protein diet), UT-A1͞ 3 ؊/؊ mice had significantly greater fluid consumption and urine flow and a reduced maximal urinary osmolality relative to wildtype controls. These differences in urinary concentrating capacity were nearly eliminated when urea excretion was decreased by dietary protein restriction (4% by weight), consistent with the 1958 Berliner hypothesis stating that the chief role of IMCD urea transport in the concentrating mechanism is the prevention of ureainduced osmotic diuresis. Analysis of inner medullary tissue after water restriction revealed marked depletion of urea in UT-A1͞3 ؊/؊ mice, confirming the concept that phloretin-sensitive IMCD urea transporters play a central role in medullary urea accumulation. However, there were no significant differences in mean inner medullary Na ؉ or Cl ؊ concentrations between UT-A1͞3 ؊/؊ mice and wild-type controls, indicating that the processes that concentrate NaCl were intact. Thus, these results do not corroborate the predictions of passive medullary concentrating models stating that NaCl accumulation in the inner medulla depends on rapid vasopressin-regulated urea transport across the IMCD epithelium.UT-A ͉ isolated perfused tubule ͉ vasopressin ͉ concentrating mechanism F or survival remote from water sources, terrestrial animals require effective water-conservation mechanisms. In birds and mammals, water conservation depends on specialized urinary concentrating mechanisms that reduce water excretion while maintaining solute excretion. This concentrating function is carried out in the renal medulla. In mammals, the medulla is divided into two regions, the outer medulla and the inner medulla (IM), both of which manifest increased tissue osmolality relative to the blood plasma (1). In these regions, high interstitial osmolality draws water from the renal collecting duct via aquaporin water channels, resulting in a concentrated final urine. In the outer medulla, the interstitial space is concentrated through the classic countercurrent multiplication mechanism (2) in which water and solute are separated by active NaCl transport from the water-impermeable thick ascending limb of Henle (3, 4). However, in the IM the ascending portion of Henle's loop is incapable of high rates of active transport (5, 6), implying that solute concentration in the IM occurs by a different, yet unknown mechanism.One important feature of the IM that distinguishes it from the outer medulla is its ability to accumulate large amounts of urea. Berliner ...

Urea is the principal end product of nitrogen metabolism in mammals. Movement of urea across cell membranes was originally thought to occur by lipid-phase permeation, but recent studies have revealed the existence of specialized transporters with a low affinity for urea (Km > 200 mM)2. Here we report the isolation of a complementary DNA from rabbit renal medulla that encodes a 397-amino-acid membrane glycoprotein, UT2, with the functional characteristics of the vasopressin-sensitive urea transporter previously described in in vitro-perfused inner medullary collecting ducts. UT2 is not homologous to any known protein and displays a unique pattern of hydrophobicity. Because of the central role of this transporter in fluid balance and nitrogen metabolism, the study of this protein will provide important insights into the urinary concentrating mechanism and nitrogen balance.

The renal urea transporter (RUT) is responsible for urea accumulation in the renal medulla, and consequently plays a central role in the urinary concentrating mechanism. To study its cellular and subcellular localization, we prepared affinity-purified, peptide-derived polyclonal antibodies against rat RUT based on the cloned cDNA sequence. Immunoblots using membrane fractions from rat renal inner medulla revealed a solitary 97-kDa band. Immunocytochemistry demonstrated RUT labeling of the apical and subapical regions of inner medullary collecting duct (IMCD) cells, with no labeling of outer medullary or cortical collecting ducts. Immunoelectron microscopy directly demonstrated labeling of the apical plasma membrane and of subapical intracellular vesicles of IMCD cells, but no labeling of the basolateral plasma membrane. Immunoblots demonstrated RUT labeling in both plasma membrane and intracellular vesicle-enriched membrane fractions from inner medulla, a subcellular distribution similar to that of the vasopressin-regulated water channel, aquaporin-2. In the outer medulla, RUT labeling was seen in terminal portions of short-loop descending thin limbs. Aside from IMCD and descending thin limbs, no other structures were labeled in the kidney. These results suggest that: (i) the RUT provides the apical pathway for rapid, vasopressinregulated urea transport in the IMCD, (ii) collecting duct urea transport may be increased by vasopressin by stimulation of trafficking of RUT-containing vesicles to the apical plasma membrane, and (iii) the rat urea transporter may provide a pathway for urea entry into the descending limbs of short-loop nephrons.Rapid, passive urea absorption from the inner medullary collecting duct (IMCD) is responsible for generation of high urea concentrations in the inner medullary interstitium (1) and consequently plays a central role in the urinary concentrating mechanism (2). The rate of absorption is accelerated by vasopressin (3, 4) via increases in intracellular cyclic AMP (5). Physiological studies in isolated perfused tubules have demonstrated that this urea transport pathway is inhibitable by phloretin and structural analogs of urea (6), and is saturable (7), providing strong evidence for the presence of a facilitated urea transporter in IMCD cells (8). Although urea transport across both apical and basolateral plasma membranes of IMCD cells appears to be mediated by phloretin-sensitive urea transporters (6, 9), urea transport across the apical plasma membrane is rate-limiting for overall transepithelial urea transport and is regulated by vasopressin (9). The mechanism by which vasopressin increases urea transport across the apical plasma membrane of the IMCD has not been investigated. In general, there are two possible mechanisms. (i) As has been demonstrated for the vasopressin-regulated water channel (10-13), the urea permeability of the apical plasma membrane may be increased as a result ofvasopressin-stimulated insertion of urea-transporter-containing vesicles into the apical p...

In mammals, urea is the predominant end-product of nitrogen metabolism and plays a central role in the urinaryconcentrating mechanism. Urea accumulation in the renal medulla is critical to the ability of the kidney to concentrate urine to an osmolality greater than systemic plasma. Regulation of urea excretion and accumulation in the renal medulla depends on the functional state of specialized phloretin-sensitive urea transporters. To study these transporters and their regulation of expression we isolated a cDNA which encodes the rat homologue (rUT2) of rabbit UT2 (You, G., C. P. Smith, Y. Kanai, W.-S. Lee, M. Stelzner, and M. A. Hediger, et al. Nature (Lond.). 1993.365:844-847). Rat UT2 has 88% amino acid sequence identity to rabbit UT2 and 64% identity to the recently cloned human erythrocyte urea transporter, HUT1l (Olives, B., P. Neav, P. Bailly, M. A. Hediger, G. Rousselet, J. P. Cartron, and P. Ripoch J. Biol. Chem. 1994. 269:31649-31652). Analysis of rat kidney mRNA revealed two transcripts of size 2.9 and 4.0 kb which had spatially distinct distributions. Northern analysis and in situ hybridization showed that the 4.0-kb transcript was primarily responsive to changes in the protein content of the diet whereas the 2.9-kb transcript was responsive to changes in the hydration state of the animal. These studies reveal that the expression levels of the two rUT2 transcripts are modulated by different pathways to allow fluid and nitrogen balance to be regulated independently. Our data provide important insights into the regulation of the renal urea transporter UT2 and provide a basis on which to refine our understanding of the urinary concentrating mechanism and its regulation. (J. Clin. Invest. 1995. 96:1556-1563

We have demonstrated that the kidney plays an important role in iron balance and that metabolically significant reabsorption of this ion occurs in the loop of Henle and the collecting ducts [Wareing M, Ferguson CJ, Green R, Riccardi D, and Smith CP. J Physiol (Lond) 524: 581-586, 2000]. To test the possibility that the divalent metal transporter DMT1 (Gunshin H, Mackenzie B, Berger UV, Gunshin Y, Romero MF, Boron WF, Nussberger S, Gollan JL, and Hediger MA. Nature 388: 482-488, 1997) could represent the apical route for iron entry in the kidney, we raised and affinity-purified an anti-DMT-1 polyclonal antibody and determined DMT-1 distribution in rat kidney by Western analysis, immunofluorescence, and confocal microscopy. The strongest DMT1-specific (i.e., peptide-protectable) immunoreactivity was found in the collecting ducts, in both principal and intercalated cells. Thick ascending limbs of Henle's loop and, more intensely, distal convoluted tubules exhibited apical immunostaining. Considerable intracellular DMT-1 immunoreactivity was seen throughout the nephron, particularly in S3 segments. The described distribution of DMT-1 protein is in agreement with our previous identification of nephron sites of iron reabsorption, suggesting that DMT-1 provides the molecular mechanism for apical iron entry in the distal nephron but not in the proximal tubule. Basolateral iron exit may be facilitated by a different system.

An essential component of the transmission process at glutamatergic synapses is the removal of glutamate from the synaptic cleft. This is achieved by powerful transport systems which have a high affinity for glutamate and exhibit a novel coupling to inorganic ions. Transporters situated on presynaptic termini sequester glutamate directly from the synaptic cleft. In concert, transporters situated on glial cells maintain a low extracellular glutamate concentration, thereby establishing a diffusion gradient favoring movement of glutamate out of the synaptic cleft. Maintenance of a low extracellular glutamate concentration also serves to protect neurons from the excitotoxic action of glutamate. Despite the physiological importance of the glutamate transporters, little information has been available on their molecular structures. This gap, however, has begun to be bridged with the recent cloning of three species of eukaryotic glutamate transporters. The purpose of this review is to summarize the results of these three cloning successes, to compare and contrast the three novel transporters, and to reinterpret, in the light of these recent breakthroughs, information from previous studies.

The urea transporters UT-A1 and UT-A3 mediate rapid transepithelial urea transport across the inner medullary collecting duct (IMCD). In a previous study, using a new mouse model in which both UT-A1 and UT-A3 were genetically deleted from the IMCD (UT-A1/3 Ϫ/Ϫ mice), we investigated the role of these transporters in the function of the renal inner medulla. Here

The UT-A (SLC14a2) and UT-B (SLC14a1) genes encode a family of specialized urea transporter proteins that regulate urea movement across plasma membranes. In this report, we describe the structure of the bovine UT-B (bUT-B) gene and characterize UT-B expression in bovine rumen. Northern analysis using a full-length bUT-B probe detected a 3.7-kb UT-B signal in rumen. RT-PCR of bovine mRNA revealed the presence of two UT-B splice variants, bUT-B1 and bUT-B2, with bUT-B2 the predominant variant in rumen. Immunoblotting studies of bovine rumen tissue, using an antibody targeted to the NH2-terminus of mouse UT-B, confirmed the presence of 43- to 54-kDa UT-B proteins. Immunolocalization studies showed that UT-B was mainly located on cell plasma membranes in epithelial layers of the bovine rumen. Ussing chamber measurements of ruminal transepithelial transport of (14)C-labeled urea indicated that urea flux was characteristically inhibited by phloretin. We conclude that bUT-B is expressed in the bovine rumen and may function to transport urea into the rumen as part of the ruminant urea nitrogen salvaging process.