Molecular conformation and filtration properties of anionic Ficoll

The physiology of glomerular permselectivity remains mechanistically obscure, despite its importance in human disease. Although electrical contributions to glomerular permselectivity have long been considered important, two recent reports demonstrated enhanced glomerular permeability to anionic versus neutral polysaccharides. The interpretation of these observations is complicated by confounding of the effects of chemical modification on charge with effects on size and shape. In this report, neutral and anionic Ficoll are characterized by size-exclusion chromatography with online light scattering and viscometry and filtration through a highly defined anionic filtration membrane. Neutral and carboxymethylated Ficoll are nearly identical in size and conformation, yet carboxymethylated Ficoll is retained by an anionic membrane in excess of neutral Ficoll. This suggests that comparisons between clearances of neutral and carboxymethylated Ficoll may be a sensitive probe of electrostatic interactions independent of size and conformation.