Renal tubule reabsorption of amino acids after lysine loading of cystinuric dogs.

The renal reabsorption of cystine, lysine, arginine, and ornithine as well as other amino acids has been determined before and after lysine infusion in four normal and five cystinuric dogs. The large filtered load of lysine caused defective reabsorption of cystine in three of four normals and augmented the basal defect in all of the cystinuric dogs. Two of the cystinuric dogs responded with cystine clearances in excess of the glomerular filtration rate. The magnitude of increase of the reabsorptive defect for cystine observed after lysine infusion into the cystinuric dogs was unrelated to the extent of the basal defect. Two of the normal dogs and four of the five cystinuric dogs demonstrated defective arginine reabsorption after lysine loading, one of the cystinuric dogs having greater arginine excretion than the filtered load. Although normal dogs showed a moderate inability to reabsorb the large filtered load of lysine, three of the cystinuric dogs exhibited a -60 to -70% reabsorption, consistent with lysine secretion. Both normal and cystinuric dogs showed defective glycine absorption after lysine loading, but only cystinuric dogs showed variable defects in threonine, serine, histidine, methionine, and tyrosine when the basic amino acid was infused. Each cystinuric dog responded to lysine infusion in a different way, and the overall pattern of response differed from the normal, with evidence of induced secretion of cystine, lysine, and arginine in the affected dogs.