Essentials of glomerulotubular balance

In the proximal tubules, fractional reabsorption remains essentially unchanged during variations in glomerular filtration rate (GFR). Glomerulotubular balance (GTB), defined as the linear relationship between proximal tubular reabsorption and GFR, is quantitatively the most important regulator of tubular reabsorption, which may be stopped by inhibiting Na, K-ATPase activity completely. However, ouabain in doses inhibiting 80% of the Na, K-ATPases, exerts no effect on proximal reabsorption of water, NaCl and NaHCO3. At constant plasma pH, the same relationship between filtered and reabsorbed bicarbonate is obtained whether bicarbonate reabsorption is altered by varying GFR or plasma concentration of bicarbonate. In contrast, a selective rise in plasma NaCl concentration at constant plasma pH (hypernatremia) reduces NaHCO3 reabsorption and fails to stimulate NaCl reabsorption. Other characteristics of proximal tubular reabsorption are that nonreabsorbable solutes, such as mannitol, inhibit water and NaCl reabsorption with little or no change in NaHCO3 reabsorption and renal oxygen consumption. Mannitol reduces the slope of the GTB curve for NaCl but not for NaHCO3. Hypertonic NaHCO3 exerts an osmotic effect on proximal water and NaCl reabsorption comparable to that of mannitol, whereas hypertonic NaCl is without osmotic effect. By reducing plasma pH (hypercapnia at high plasma bicarbonate concentration), the slope of the GTB curves for NaCl and NaHCO3 can be greatly increased. By raising plasma pH either by hypocapnia or bicarbonate loading, proximal reabsorption of NaHCO3 and NaCl is greatly depressed and remains almost unaltered during variations of GFR (abolished GTB). Similarly, carbonic anhydrase inhibitors, such as acetazolamide, reduce the reabsorption of NaCl and NaHCO3 in the same proportion as a rise in plasma pH, and abolish GTB. Examinations of proximal tubular oxygen consumption indicate that the energy requirement for NaHCO3 reabsorption is as expected for transcellular transport by Na, K-ATPases, whereas proximal NaCl reabsorption requires no additional energy. These data indicate that transcellular energy-requiring NaHCO3 reabsorption provides the main osmotic force across the tight junction for paracellular reabsorption of proximal tubular fluid containing NaCl and other solutes of low reflection coefficient. The main factors influencing GTB are the filtered load of bicarbonate, plasma pH and nonreabsorbable solutes in the proximal tubular fluid.