Studies on the metabolism of the renal glomerular basement membrane. Turnover measurements in the rat with the use of radiolabeled amino acids.

The synthesis and degradation of the renal glomerular basement membrane have been investigated in the rat with the aid of injected tracer doses of various tritiated amino acids including L-proline, L-lysine, L-phenylalanine, L-leucine, and glycine. After incorporation into the basement membrane the turnover times of these amino acid constituents, as well as of hydroxyproline and hydroxylysine, were determined from the decay in their specific radioactivities. The loss of radioactivity from the proline and hydroxyproline of the glomerular basement membrane was as slow as that from tail tendon collagen in the same animals (turnover time of more than 100 days) and contrasted with the radiodecay of the proline in other glomerular proteins (turnover time of 9 days). The glycine of the membrane similarly turned over at this very slow rate. The total replacement times of the leucine, hydroxylysine, lysine, and phenylalanine constituents of the basement membrane were determined to be somewhat shorter with a range of 65 to 23 days. The nonuniform turnover of these membrane components may be a function of the polydispersity of the peptide subunits of the basement membrane observed by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and may reflect a subtle morphological and functional heterogeneity. The amino acid and saccharide composition of the rat glomerular basement membrane used in these studies are also reported.