Isovolumetric regulation in a distal nephron cell line (A6)

The effects of gradually reducing the osmolality of the basolateral solution (pi b) were examined in a renal epithelial cell line (A6). pi b was linearly decreased with time from 260 to 140 mosmol/ kgH2O. Cell volume did not change when pi b was gradually decreased at dilution rates (D(r)) of 1-1.5 mosmol. kgH2O-1. min-1. Increasing D(r) to 3 or 6 mosmol. kgH2O-1. min-1 abolished this isovolumetric regulation (IVR). Replacing Cl- by NO3- or SCN- inhibited IVR markedly, whereas Br- substituted perfectly for Cl-. On the other hand, with all these anions, the regulatory volume decrease (RVD) was completely developed. Ba2+ (30 mM) markedly slowed down RVD but improved IVR. The discrepancies between RVD and IVR suggest that different mechanisms are used to control cell volume during gradual and shockwise hyposmotic perturbations. During gradual and shockwise reductions of pi b, cellular K+ content was reduced to the same extent; 86Rb efflux was only partially inhibited by Ba2+. The amount of intracellular K+ depletion could account for 70% of the cationic osmolyte loss, which suggests that K+ is the major cation excreted during both types of perturbations.