Dibutyryl cyclic AMP does not influence glomerular collagen or basement membrane production in vitro

Glomeruli isolated from normal rat renal cortex were incubated for 3 hr with radiolabeled proline in the presence or absence of dibutyryl cyclic AMP. Following incubation, glomerular basement membranes were purified with osmotic lysis followed by selective solubilization of the cell membranes and intracellular proteins with detergents. This technique permitted quantitative recovery of radiolabeled membranes synthesized under different incubational conditions. Dibutyryl cyclic AMP did not affect the incorporation of radioactive precursor glomerular basement membrane (control = 14.72 +/- 1.08 cpm/microgram of membrane protein; cyclic AMP = 14.43 +/- 1.13). Nondialyzable [14C]protein and hydroxy[14C]proline were also measured in the media and in the various glomerular cell fractions obtained during isolation of the basement membranes. Protein ([14C]proline) and collagen (OH[14C]proline) secretion into the media in incubations with cyclic AMP did not differ from that in control incubations. OH[14C]proline content was greatest (congruent to 23% in the water-soluble fraction recovered after osmotic lysis, but significant amounts of OH[14C]proline were also associated with the detergent-solubilized cell fractions. Dibutyryl cyclic AMP had no effect on either glomerular protein or collagen synthesis in these experiments. The results suggest that total glomerular basement membrane production in mixed cell populations is not modulated via a cyclic AMP--coordinated mechanism but do not exclude the possibility that cyclic AMP modulates the amount or kind of collagen synthesis by individual glomerular cell types.