Sulfhydryl groups are essential for organic cation exchange in rabbit renal basolateral membrane vesicles.

The effect of N-ethylmaleimide (NEM), an irreversible sulfhydryl modifying reagent, on the transport of organic cations in the renal basolateral membrane was examined. The studies were conducted examining the exchange of [3H]tetraethylammonium (TEA) for unlabeled TEA in basolateral membrane vesicles isolated from the outer cortex of rabbit kidneys. NEM inactivated TEA transport in a dose-dependent fashion with an IC50 value of 260 microM. The rate of TEA transport inactivation followed apparent pseudo-first-order reaction kinetics. A replot of the data gave a linear relationship between the apparent rate constants and the NEM concentration with a slope of 4.0. The data imply that inactivation involves the binding of at least four molecules of NEM per active transport unit. This is most consistent with the presence of four sulfhydryl groups at this site. The substrate TEA displayed a dose-dependent enhancement of NEM inactivation, with 50% enhancement occurring at 365 microM TEA. Another organic cation, N1-methylnicotinamide, known to share a common transport mechanism with the TEA/TEA exchanger is also capable of increasing the reactivity of sulfhydryl groups to NEM. These results demonstrate that there are essential sulfhydryl groups for organic cation transport in the basolateral membrane. In addition, the capability of organic cations to alter the susceptibility to sulfhydryl modification suggests that these groups may have a dynamic role in the transport process.