Analytical study on Na-K-ATPase (and cysteine insensitive p-nitrophenylphosphatase) in rat kidney-cortex microsomes...

The common use of Na-K-ATPase as a marker enzyme for basolateral membranes in the kidney is based on the microscopic localization of the enzyme by the cytochemical assay of Na-K-ATPase as cysteine insensitive p-nitrophenylphosphatase (Ernst S.A., J. Cell Biol. 66, 586-606, 1975). Rat kidney cortex plasma membranes were therefore fractionated by differential pelleting in isotonic sucrose, followed by equilibrium banding in linear sucrose gradients, to compare the distribution of "biochemical" and "cytochemical" assayed Na-K-ATPase. In all fractions, the distribution of Na-K-stimulated Mg-dependent ATPase differed from the distribution of cysteine insensitive p-nitrophenylphosphatase (alkaline phosphatase). Evidence is presented that this difference is not only due to the separation of plasma membranes from different cell types, but simply reflects different membrane location of the enzymic activities.