Ontogeny of glycine transport in isolated rat renal tubules

Isolated renal tubule preparations were made from newborn Sprague-Dawley rats and used to study initial entry rate kinetics of glycine. The results were compared to those obtained in the isolated tubule preparation from the adult rat kidney. While initial rates of glycine uptake were identical for newborn and adult tubules, significant differences in influx kinetics were demonstrated. Of the two apparent transport Km systems shown to be present in the newborn tubule, the high-affinity, low-capacity system accounts for about 40% of total glycine uptake at physiologic concentrations. The high-affinity, low-capacity system of the adult tissue accounts for about 10% of total uptake at the same concentration range. The data lend strength to the argument against the concept that the physiologic hyperglycinuria of the newborn rat is due to either impaired ability to concentrate glycine intracellularly or to absence of one or more transport mechanisms for glycine.