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Mechanisms of Water Transport Across Tubular Epithelia: Routes for Movement

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Advances in Physiological Research

Abstract

Continuous water pathways pierce both apical and basolateral cell membranes of the proximal kidney tubule to be used by water during osmotic equilibration between cells and luminal and peritubular media, because (a) the water osmotic permeability coefficient of apical and basolateral plasma membranes, P caos and P cbos respectively is high; (b) their activation energy, Ea, is as that of free water movement; (c) the sulfhydryl reagent pCMBS inhibits markedly (but reversibly) P caos and P cbos increasing their Ea to values similar to those observed in lipid bilayers without pores; (d) measurements of Pd, the water diffusive permeability coefficient using proton relaxation NMR indicate that (P caos + P cbos )/Pd is near 23 in controls and 3 with pCMBS. Scatchard or Hill plots of the degree of inhibition of P cbos and of Pd as a function of [pCMBS] gives values for N of 4 and 2, respectively, indicating that more than 1 pCMBS molecule binds to each water pathway to block it. In addition to these transcellular pathways, the following observations indicate that paracellular pathways for water flow exist in leaky epithelia: (a) some large extracellular solutes are dragged by water in four leaky epithelia: gall bladder, Necturus proximal tubule, rat proximal tubule and Rhodnius malpighian tubule; (b) the transcellular water osmotic permeability coefficient is smaller than the transepithelial (P teos ) values measured in the rabbit proximal straight tubule; (c) pCMBS inhibits P teos by 60% under conditions in which P cbos is inhibited much more. This requires a significant paracellular permeability.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Bíofisica y Bíoquimica, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas, P.O. Box 21827, Caracas, 1020A, Venezuela

    Guillermo Whittembury & Paola Carpi-Medina

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  1. Guillermo Whittembury
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  2. Paola Carpi-Medina
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

    H. McLennan , J. R. Ledsome , C. H. S. McIntosh  & D. R. Jones , ,  & 

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© 1987 Plenum Press, New York

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Whittembury, G., Carpi-Medina, P. (1987). Mechanisms of Water Transport Across Tubular Epithelia: Routes for Movement. In: McLennan, H., Ledsome, J.R., McIntosh, C.H.S., Jones, D.R. (eds) Advances in Physiological Research. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-9492-5_25

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-9492-5_25

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4615-9494-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-9492-5

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