The recently cloned apical renal transport system for organic cations (OCT2) exists in dopamine-rich tissues such as kidney and some brain areas (Grü ndemann, D., Babin-Ebell, J., Martel, F., Ö rding, N., Schmidt, A., and Schö mig, E.

Liver and kidney extract adrenaline and noradrenaline from the circulation by a mechanism which does not seem to be one of the classical catecholamine transporters. The hypothesis that OCT1 is involved–the organic cation transporter type 1 which exists in rat kidney and liver–was tested. Based on human embryonic kidney cells (293), we constructed a cell line which stably expresses OCT1r (293OCT1r cells). Transfection with OCT1 resulted in a transport activity not only for prototypical known substrates of OCT1 such as 3H‐1‐methyl‐4‐phenylpyridinium and 14C‐tetraethylammonium but also for the catecholamines 3H‐adrenaline, 3H‐noradrenaline (3H‐NA) and 3H‐dopamine (3H‐DA), the indoleamine 3H‐5‐hydroxytryptamine (3H‐5HT) as well as the indirect sympathomimetic 14C‐tyramine. For 3H‐DA, 3H‐5HT and 3H‐NA, at non‐saturating concentrations, the rate constants for inwardly directed substrate flux (kin) were 6.9±0.8, 3.1±0.2, and 1.2±0.1 μl min−1 mg protein−1. In wild type cells (293WT) the corresponding kin's were considerably lower, being 0.94±0.40, 0.47±0.08 and 0.23±0.05 μl min−1 mg protein−1 (n=12). The indirectly determined half‐saturating concentrations of DA, 5HT, and NA were 1.1 (95% c.i.: 0.8, 1.4), 0.65 (0.49, 0.86), and 2.8 (2.1, 3.7) mmol l−1 (n=3). Specific 3H‐DA uptake in 293OCT1r cells was resistant to cocaine (1 μmol l−1), 3H‐5HT uptake was resistant to citalopram (300 nmol l−1) and 3H‐NA uptake was resistant to desipramine (100 nmoll−1), corticosterone (1 μmol l−1), and reserpine (10 nmol l−1) which rules out the involvement of classical transporters for biogenic amines. The findings demonstrate that OCT1 efficiently transports catecholamines and other biogenic amines and support the hypothesis that OCT1 is responsible for hepatic and renal inactivation of circulating catecholamines. British Journal of Pharmacology (1998) 125, 218–224; doi:10.1038/sj.bjp.0702065

The recent cloning of renal transport systems for organic anions and cations (OAT1, OCT1, and OCT2) opened the possibility to search, via polymerase chain reaction (PCR) homology screening, for novel transport proteins. Two integral membrane proteins, UST1 and UST2, were cloned from rat kidney. RT-PCR revealed that UST1 is confined to the kidney whereas UST2 mRNA was detected in all tested tissues. Sequence analyses suggest that UST1 and UST2, together with four related transporters, comprise, within the major facilitator superfamily, a so far unrecognized transporter family, termed amphiphilic solute facilitator (ASF) family. Characteristic signatures for the ASF family were identified.z 1998 Federation of European Biochemical Societies.

Islet cell autoantigen of 69 kDa (ICA69) is a cytosolic protein of still unknown function. Involvement of ICA69 in neurosecretion has been suggested by the impairment of acetylcholine release at neuromuscular junctions upon mutation of its homologue gene ric-19 in C. elegans. In this study, we have further investigated the localization of ICA69 in neurons and insulinoma INS-1 cells. ICA69 was enriched in the perinuclear region, whereas it did not co-localize with markers of synaptic vesicles/synaptic-like microvesicles. Confocal microscopy and subcellular fractionation in INS-1 cells showed co-localization of ICA69 with markers of the Golgi complex and, to a minor extent, with immature insulin-containing secretory granules. The association of ICA69 with these organelles was confirmed by immunoelectron microscopy. Virtually no ICA69 immunogold labeling was observed on secretory granules near the plasma membrane, suggesting that ICA69 dissociates from secretory granule membranes during their maturation. In silico sequence and structural analyses revealed that the N-terminal region of ICA69 is similar to the region of arfaptins that interacts with ARF1, a small GTPase involved in vesicle budding at the Golgi complex and immature secretory granules. ICA69 is therefore a novel arfaptin-related protein that is likely to play a role in membrane trafficking at the Golgi complex and immature secretory granules in neurosecretory cells.