Ion pathways in renal brush border membranes.

The absorbance change of the weak base dye probe, Acridine orange, was used to monitor alterations of pH gradients across renal brush border membrane vesicles. The presence of Na+/H+ or Li+/H+ exchange was demonstrated by diluting Na2SO4 or Li2SO4 loaded vesicles into Na+-or Li+-free solutions, which caused dye uptake. About 20% of the uptake was abolished by lipid permeable cations such as valinomycin-K+ or tetraphenylphosphonium, indicating perhaps the presence of a finite Na+ conductance smaller than electroneutral Na+/H+ exchange. The protonophore tetrachlorosalicylanilide raised the rate of dye uptake under these conditions, hence the presence of an Na+ conductance greater than the H+ conductance was suggested. K+ gradients also induced changes of pH, at about 10% of the Na+ or Li+ rate. Partial inhibition (21%) was seen with 0.1 mM amiloride indicating that K+ was a low affinity substrate for the Na+/H+ exchange. Acceleration both by tetrachlorosalicylanilide (2-fold) and valinomycin (4-fold) suggested the presence of 2 classes of vesicles, those with high and those with low K+ conductance. The larger magnitude of the valinomycin dependent signal suggested that 75% of the vesicles has a low K+ conductance. Inward Cl- gradients also induced acidification, partially inhibited by the presence of tetraphenylphosphonium, and accelerated by tetrachlorosalicylanilide. Thus both a Cl- conductance greater than the H+ conductance and a Cl-/OH- exchange were present. The rate of Na+/H+ exchange was amiloride sensitive with a pH optimum of 6.5 and an apparent Km for Na+ or Li+ of about 10 mM and an EA of 14.3 kcal per mol. A 61-fold Na2SO4 gradient resulted in a pH gradient of 1.64 units which increased to 1.8 with gramicidin. An equivalent NaCl gradient gave a much lower delta pH even in the presence of gramicidin showing that the H+ and Cl- pathways could alter the effect of the Na+/H+ exchange.