Polarity of proximal tubular epithelial cells in relation to transepithelial transport

Transport properties of brush border microvilli and basal-lateral plasma membranes isolated from rat kidney cortex were studied by a millipore filtration technique. Brush border microvilli but not basal-lateral plasma membranes contain sodium dependent stereospecific transport system for D-glucose, L-phenylalanine and inorganic phosphate as indicated by saturability, countertransport and inhibition by structurally related compounds. Reduction of equilbrium uptake by increasing medium osmolarity suggests transport into an osmotically reactive space rather than binding to the membranes. Electrogenecity of the sodium-sugar and sodium-amino-acid cotransport system was established by their dependence on artificially imposed diffusion potentials. Also a NA+/H+ antiport system can be demonstrated in microvilli vesicles by demonstrating counterflow of both ions under short circuit conditions. Basal-lateral plasma membranes contain sodium independent stereospecific transport systems for sugars and amino acids. These results demonstrate a marked functional polarity of the cell membranes in respect to sodium dependent and sodium independent transport systems. This polarity in conjunction with the asymmetrical distribution of sodium between the intra- and extracellular space seems to enable the proximal tubule epithelial cells to perform active transepithelial transport.