Fluidity of brush border and basolateral membranes from human kidney cortex.

The physical state of lipids in brush border and basolateral membrane vesicles prepared from normal human kidney cortex was investigated by fluorescence polarization and electron spin resonance. At physiologic temperature, lipids were significantly less ordered, i.e., more fluid, in basolateral than in brush border membranes. This difference was also observed using corresponding liposomes made from total lipid extracts. For both brush border and basolateral membranes, temperature-dependent experiments revealed the existence of a broad thermotropic transition extending approximately from 20 to 42 degrees C. These data are interpreted to indicate that plasma membranes from human kidney cortex function physiologically at the upper critical temperature of a transition that probably corresponds to a liquid crystalline-to-gel lipid phase separation.