Direct effect of vanadium on citrate uptake by rat renal brush border membrane vesicles (BBMV)

Vanadium pentoxide is used as a catalyst and a ferrovanadium alloy ingredient in automotive steels and in jet engines and airframes. In addition, vanadium is found in fuel oils. Thus, occupational exposures to vanadium pentoxide and trioxide may occur during the cleaning of oil-fired ship boilers, and from oil-fired power station boilers. Occupational exposure to vanadium pentoxide induces green tongue, asthmatic symptoms and albuminuria with cast. Urinary citrate is freely filtered at the glomerulus, and its reabsorption in the proximal tubule is the major determinant of the rate of renal excretion. In this study, we exposed rat renal brush border membrane vesicles (BBMV) to vanadium pentoxide and examined their citrate uptake characteristics. The preincubation of BBMV with 1 mM V2O5 for 8 hours significantly inhibited citrate uptake compared with that of BBMV without V2O5, preincubation. These findings indicate that the preincubation of BBMV with vanadium pentoxide results in a time-dependent inhibition of citrate uptake by BBMV. These findings might contribute to nephrotoxicity in vanadium exposure.