Relationship among gluconeogenesis, QO2, and Na+ transport in the perfused rat kidney

The relationship among sodium transport (TNa), oxygen consumption (QO2), and gluconeogenesis was studied in isolated perfused rat kidneys in which glucose formation was enhanced by providing pyruvate as a substrate and by prior treatment with methylprednisolone. TNa was increased abruptly by increasing perfusion pressure as to increase GFR or by lowering the albumin concentration of a hyperoncotic perfusate as to allow glomerular filtration to occur. Increases in TNa of 40% were accompanied by little or no increase in QO2, whereas gluconeogenesis decreased 55-80%. Conversely, a decrease in perfusion pressure that lowered TNa produced an increase in glucose formation without a change in QO2. When gluconeogenesis was blocked with 0.15 mM 3-mercaptopicolinate, an inhibitor of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase, QO2 increased together with TNa as perfusion pressure was raised. The results suggest that the energy needed for ion transport by the kidney may under some circumstances be borrowed from nontransport functions and, therefore, that basal oxygen consumption may vary with the rate of reabsorptive transport.