Adenosine coordinates organ metabolism and blood supply, and it modulates immune responses. In the kidney it mediates the vascular response elicited by changes in NaCl concentration in the macula densa region of the nephron, thereby serving as an important regulator of GFR. To determine whether adenosine formation depends on extracellular nucleotide hydrolysis, we studied NaCl-dependent GFR regulation (tubuloglomerular feedback) in mice with targeted deletion of ecto-5′-nucleotidase/CD73 (e-5′NT/CD73), the enzyme responsible for adenosine formation from AMP. e-5′NT/CD73 -/-mice were viable and showed no gross anatomical abnormalities. Blood pressure, blood and urine chemistry, and renal blood flow were not different between e-5′NT/CD73 +/+ and e-5′NT/CD73 -/-mice. e-5′NT/CD73 -/-mice had a significantly reduced fall in stop flow pressure and superficial nephron glomerular filtration rate in response to a saturating increase of tubular perfusion flow. Furthermore, whereas tubuloglomerular feedback responses did not change significantly during prolonged loop of Henle perfusion in e-5′NT/CD73 +/+ mice, a complete disappearance of the residual feedback response was noted in e-5′NT/CD73 -/-mice over 10 minutes of perfusion. The contractile response of isolated afferent arterioles to adenosine was normal in e-5′NT/CD73 -/-mice. We conclude that the generation of adenosine at the glomerular pole depends to a major extent on e-5′NT/CD73-mediated dephosphorylation of 5′-AMP, presumably generated from released ATP.
IntroductionAdenosine is a multifunctional nucleoside that coordinates cellular oxygen supply and demand by adapting organ blood flow to metabolic rate (1). In addition, adenosine plays a major role in immune responsiveness with its net effect being either pro-or anti-inflammatory, depending on adenosine receptor subtype representation (2). Studies in adenosine receptor KO mice have contributed importantly to further defining nonredundant roles of adenosine in both processes. Our focus has been to elucidate the role of adenosine in the local hemodynamic control mechanism, called tubuloglomerular feedback, that operates in the kidney at the level of the juxtaglomerular apparatus (JGA). Tubuloglomerular feedback describes a functional connection between the tubular epithelium at the site of the macula densa (MD) and the underlying smooth muscle cells of the afferent and efferent glomerular arterioles. An increase in NaCl concentration in the luminal fluid at the MD cells causes an activation of smooth muscle cells and arteriolar vasoconstriction. As a consequence, glomerular filtration pressure and filtration rate fall. Both pharmacological and gene-targeting approaches have shown that tubuloglomerular feedback-induced vasoconstriction has an absolute requirement for functional A1 adenosine receptors (A1ARs), suggesting that adenosine as their natural ligand