Intracellular compartmentation of organic anions within renal cells

Epifluorescence microscopy and video-image analysis were used to measure the distribution of the monovalent organic anion fluorescein (FL) within the cells of three organic anion-secreting renal epithelia: crab urinary bladder (a proximal tubule analogue), opossum kidney (OK) cells in culture, and intact teleost proximal tubules. In all three preparations the intracellular FL distribution was nonuniform. Two distinct intracellular compartments were detected, one being diffuse and cytoplasmic and the other punctate. With low FL concentrations in the medium (1 microM and below) dye accumulation in the punctate compartment exceeded that of the cytoplasm. In crab bladder epithelium FL uptake into both compartments was inhibited by external probenecid, p-aminohippurate (PAH), and LiCl and stimulated by 10-50 microM external glutarate, suggesting that the punctate compartment loaded by a two-step mechanism: transport into the cytoplasm at the basolateral membrane, followed by accumulation at specific intracellular sites. Experiments in which FL was microinjected into OK cells directly demonstrated movement of FL from the cytoplasmic to the punctate compartment. Accumulation in the latter was specific, i.e., inhibitable by coinjected PAH and probenecid, and energy dependent. Together, these findings indicate that during secretion organic anions are sequestered within renal cells. The role of sequestration in overall transport remains to be determined.