Characteristics of uptake of short chain fatty acids by luminal membrane vesicles from rabbit kidney.

The mechanisms of renal transport of short chain fatty acids by luminal membrane vesicles prepared from pars convoluta or pars recta of rabbit proximal tubule were studied by a Millipore filtration technique and by a spectrophotometric method using a potential-sensitive carbocyanine dye. Both luminal membrane vesicle preparations take up propionate and butyrate by strictly Na+-dependent transport systems, although with different characteristics. The uptake of short chain fatty acids by membrane vesicles from the pars convoluta was insensitive to changes in membrane potential, which is indicative of electroneutral transport of these compounds. Furthermore, kinetic studies showed that the Na+-dependent, but electrically silent transport of propionate is saturable (Km = 10.9 +/- 1.1 mM and Vmax = 3.6 +/- 0.2 nmol/mg protein per 20 s) and is unaffected by the presence of L- and D-lactate, indicating that these monocarboxylic acids did not share the same common transport system. In the luminal membrane vesicles from the pars recta, the uptake of propionate and butyrate was mediated by an Na+-dependent electrogenic transport process, since addition of the organic compounds to these vesicle/dye suspensions depolarized the membrane vesicles and the renal uptake of propionate and butyrate was enhanced by K+ diffusion potential induced by valinomycin. Competition experiments revealed that in contrast to the transport of propionate by vesicles from the pars convoluta, the Na+-dependent electrogenic transport of short chain fatty acids in vesicles from the pars recta occurred via the same transport system that is responsible for the reabsorption of L- and D-lactate in this region of rabbit kidney proximal tubule.