Thiocyanate inhibition of ATPase and its relationship to anion transport

Adenosine triphosphatase activity not dependent on sodium or potassium but inhibited by thiocyanate is present in broken-cell homogenates of eel gill and rat kidney. This enzymatic property is predominantly associated with mitochondria, although thiocyanate-inhibited ATPase can also be detected in microsomes with little or no mitochondrial contamination as measured by the activity of the mitochondrial marker enzyme succinic dehydrogenase. When eels are transferred from fresh to salf water, thus increasing active outward transport of chloride across the gill, the thiocyanate-inhibited ATPase of gill microsomes does not change, though the activities of succinic dehydrogenase and Na-K-ATPase in gill homogenates are augmented. The thiocyanate-inhibited ATPase of homogenates of outer renal medulla does not differ from that of renal cortex, in contrast to Na-k-atpase which is higher in renal medulla than in cortex. The data do not support a role for thiocyanate-inhibited ATPase in active chloride transport by epithelial tissues.