PAH transport in rock crab (Cancer irroratus) urinary bladder

Crab urinary bladder appears to possess several morphological and functional similarities to vertebrate renal proximal tubule. Sections of intermolt rock crab bladder accumulated PAH by a process that was concentrative (60 min tissue-to-medium ratio (T/M) for 10 microM PAH averaged 24), Na dependent, powered by glycolytic metabolism, and inhibitable by other organic anions. Initial section uptakes exhibited saturation kinetics and a double-reciprocal plot of uptake vs. concentration yielded a single line with a Km of 70 microM and a Vmax of 5 nmol . mg tissue-1 . h-1. Chlorophenol red and bromocresol green (BCG) competitively inhibited PAH uptake. When bladder sheets were mounted in a flux chamber, they exhibited a large, net lumen-to-serosa (L leads to S) flux of 10 microM PAH that was abolished by 1 mM BCG. The small unidirectional S leads to L flux was not BCG-inhibitable. Bladder sheets exhibited PAH T/M greater than 1 after luminal, but not serosal, exposure. BCG only reduced bladder sheet T/M after luminal exposure. The data are consistent with uphill, Na-dependent, and carrier-mediated entry of PAH at the luminal membrane and nonmediated exit at the serosal membrane.