Brush border disaccharidases in dog kidney and their spatial relationship to glucose transport receptors.

The localization of disaccharidases in kidney has been studied by means of the multiple indicator dilution technique. A pulse injection of a solution containing Evans blue dye (plasma marker), creatinine (extracellular marker), and a (14)C-labeled disaccharide (lactose, sucrose, maltose, and alphaalpha-trehalose), is made into the renal artery of an anesthetized dog, and the outflow curves are monitored simultaneously from renal venous and urine effluents. Lactose and sucrose have an extracellular distribution. Trehalose and maltose remain extracellular from the postglomerular circulation. About 75% of filtered tracer maltose or trehalose is extracted by the luminal surface of the nephron. Thin-layer chromatography of urine samples shows that all of the excreted (14)C radiolabel is in the form of the injected disaccharide. Following the administration of phlorizin, all of the filtered radioactivity is recoverable in the urine, but chromatography of the urine samples now reveals that there is a significant excretion of [(14)C]glucose, approximating the amount previously extracted under control conditions (in the absence of phlorizin). It has been verified that no hydrolysis of maltose or trehalose to their constituent glucose subunits occurred during the transit of tracer between the point of injection (renal artery), and the point of filtration (glomerular basement membrane). Similarly, after addition of [(14)C]disaccharides to fresh urine there is no chromatographically recoverable [(14)C]glucose. It is concluded that there exist alpha-glucosidases with maltase and trehalase activity along the brush border of the proximal tubule and that these disaccharidases are located spatially superficial to the glucose transport receptors.