In mammals, toxic electrolytes of endogenous and exogenous origin are excreted through the urine and bile. Before excretion, these compounds cross numerous cellular membranes in a transporter-mediated manner. However, the protein transporters involved in the final excretion step are poorly understood. Here, we show that MATE1, a human and mouse orthologue of the multidrug and toxin extrusion family conferring multidrug resistance on bacteria, is primarily expressed in the kidney and liver, where it is localized to the luminal membranes of the urinary tubules and bile canaliculi. When expressed in HEK293 cells, MATE1 mediates H ؉ -coupled electroneutral exchange of tetraethylammonium and 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium. Its substrate specificity is similar to those of renal and hepatic H ؉ -coupled organic cations (OCs) export. Thus, MATE1 appears to be the long searched for polyspecific OC exporter that directly transports toxic OCs into urine and bile. multidrug and toxin extrusion ͉ multidrug export ͉ urinary tubule ͉ bile canaliculi

ATP is a major chemical transmitter in purinergic signal transmission. Before secretion, ATP is stored in secretory vesicles found in purinergic cells. Although the presence of active transport mechanisms for ATP has been postulated for a long time, the proteins responsible for its vesicular accumulation remains unknown. The transporter encoded by the human and mouse SLC17A9 gene, a novel member of an anion transporter family, was predominantly expressed in the brain and adrenal gland. The mouse and bovine counterparts were associated with adrenal chromaffin granules. Proteoliposomes containing purified transporter actively took up ATP, ADP, and GTP by using membrane potential as the driving force. The uptake properties of the reconstituted transporter were similar to that of the ATP uptake by synaptic vesicles and chromaffin granules. Suppression of endogenous SLC17A9 expression in PC12 cells decreased exocytosis of ATP. These findings strongly suggest that SLC17A9 protein is a vesicular nucleotide transporter and should lead to the elucidation of the molecular mechanism of ATP secretion in purinergic signal transmission.ATP ͉ chromaffin granule ͉ purinergic signaling ͉ storage and exocytosis ͉ synaptic vesicle V esicular storage and subsequent exocytosis of neurotransmitters is essential for chemical transmission in neurons and endocrine cells. Thus far four distinct classes of transporters are known to participate in the uptake of neurotransmitters into neuronal synaptic vesicles and secretory granules in endocrine cells. These are vesicular monoamine transporters, vesicular acetylcholine transporters, vesicular inhibitory amino acid transporters, and vesicular glutamate transporters (VGLUTs) (1-7). These vesicular transporters mediate the active accumulation of their respective neurotransmitters through an electrochemical gradient of protons across the membrane generated by vacuolar proton-ATPase. ATP is stored in secretory vesicles and subsequently exocytosed, which leads to the various purinergic responses, such as central control of autonomic functions, pain and mechanosensory transduction, neural-glial interactions, control of vessel tone and angiogenesis, and platelet aggregation through purinoceptors, thus establishing its role as a chemical transmitter (8)(9)(10)(11)(12). Because the concentration of nucleotides in the vesicles was maintained at Ϸ0.1-1 M, an active transport mechanisms to accumulate nucleotides has been postulated (8-18). Although evidence increasingly supports the presence of a vesicular ATP transporters in secretory vesicles such as synaptic vesicles and adrenal chromaffin granules (13-19), the protein responsible for the ATP accumulation has not yet been identified.Here, we report the expression and function of human and mouse SLC17A9, an isoform of the SLC17 phosphate transporter family. We present evidence that the SLC17A9 protein acts as a vesicular nucleotide transporter (VNUT) and that it plays an essential role in vesicular storage of ATP in the ATP-secreting cells. Results a...

This study demonstrates that ox-LDL levels show a significant positive correlation with the severity of acute coronary syndromes and that the more severe lesions also contain a significantly higher percentage of ox-LDL-positive macrophages. These observations suggest that increased levels of ox-LDL relate to plaque instability in human coronary atherosclerotic lesions.

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NorM is a member of the multidrug and toxic compound extrusion (MATE) family and functions as a Na ؉ /multidrug antiporter in Vibrio parahaemolyticus, although the underlying mechanism of the Na ؉ /multidrug antiport is unknown. Acidic amino acid residues Asp32, Glu251, and Asp367 in the transmembrane region of NorM are conserved in one of the clusters of the MATE family. In this study, we investigated the role(s) of acidic amino acid residues Asp32, Glu251, and Asp367 in the transmembrane region of NorM by site-directed mutagenesis. Wild-type NorM and mutant proteins with amino acid replacements D32E (D32 to E), D32N, D32K, E251D, E251Q, D367A, D367E, D367N, and D367K were expressed and localized in the inner membrane of Escherichia coli KAM32 cells, while the mutant proteins with D32A, E251A, and E251K were not. Compared to cells with wild-type NorM, cells with the mutant NorM protein exhibited reduced resistance to kanamycin, norfloxacin, and ethidium bromide, but the NorM D367E mutant was more resistant to ethidium bromide. The NorM mutant D32E, D32N, D32K, D367A, and D367K cells lost the ability to extrude ethidium ions, which was Na ؉ dependent, and the ability to move Na ؉ , which was evoked by ethidium bromide. Both E251D and D367N mutants decreased Na ؉ -dependent extrusion of ethidium ions, but ethidium bromide-evoked movement of Na ؉ was retained. In contrast, D367E caused increased transport of ethidium ions and Na ؉ . These results suggest that Asp32, Glu251, and Asp367 are involved in the Na ؉ -dependent drug transport process.

In islets of Langerhans, L-glutamate is stored in glucagon-containing secretory granules of ␣-cells and cosecreted with glucagon under low-glucose conditions. The L-glutamate triggers secretion of ␥-aminobutyric acid (GABA) from ␤-cells, which in turn inhibits glucagon secretion from ␣-cells through the GABAA receptor. In the present study, we tested the working hypothesis that L-glutamate functions as an autocrine/paracrine modulator and inhibits glucagon secretion through a glutamate receptor (

Noninvasive DSCT coronary angiography is highly sensitive to detect and to reliably rule out the presence of a significant coronary stenosis in patients presenting with atypical or typical angina pectoris, or unstable coronary artery disease.