Maximal flux responses after multiple challenges with vasopressin

Inhibition of basolateral cAMP permeability in the toad urinary bladder

1. The effect of sulphonylurea drugs on hydrosmotic flow across toad urinary bladder epithelium was re-evaluated in the present study. Glibenclamide, added to the basolateral medium, significantly enhanced the osmotic flow induced by low doses of antidiuretic hormone (ADH) or forskolin (FK), while it inhibited the effect of exogenous cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) or its non-hydrolysable bromo derivative, 8-Br-cAMP, added to the basolateral medium. These opposite effects of glibenclamide on the transepithelial osmotic flow can be explained by a reduction of cAMP permeability across the basolateral membrane of the epithelium. The decrease in cAMP permeability leads, according to the direction of the cAMP gradient, to firstly an enhanced osmotic flow when cAMP is generated intracellularly by addition of ADH and FK, glibenclamide reducing cAMP exit from the cell, and secondly a decreased osmotic flow in response to cAMP (and 8-Br-cAMP) added to the basolateral medium, glibenclamide inhibiting, in this case, their entry into the cell. 2. The demonstration that glibenclamide actually inhibits the basolateral cAMP permeability rests on the fact that firstly it decreases the release of cAMP into the basolateral medium by about 40 %, at each concentration of ADH or forskolin tested, secondly it increases the cAMP content of paired hemibladders incubated in the presence of ADH or FK, when intracellular degradation was prevented by phosphodiesterase inhibition, and thirdly it decreases also the uptake of basolateral 8-Br-[3H]cAMP into paired toad hemibladders. 3. Taken together, the present data demonstrate that glibenclamide inhibits the toad urinary bladder basolateral membrane permeability to cAMP, most probably by a direct interaction with a membrane protein not yet indentified but distinct from the sulphonylurea receptor.

ADH-induced recycling of fluid-phase marker from endosomes to the mucosal surface in toad bladder

In the toad urinary bladder, the reversal of antidiuretic hormone (ADH) stimulation results in the endocytosis of apical membrane water channels, along with any fluid-phase marker present in the mucosal bathing solution. We have loaded vesicles with horseradish peroxidase (HRP), then restimulated the bladders and measured the reappearance of endocytosed HRP in the mucosal bath. HRP-loaded bladders that were restimulated showed HRP release that peaked sharply within 15 min after restimulation. Varying the interval between loading and restimulation did not vary HRP release significantly. Restimulation with forskolin gave HRP release values similar to ADH. The amount of HRP released correlated with the magnitude of water permeability induced. The demonstration that fluid-phase markers can be recycled from endosomes to the apical surface in a hormone-dependent fashion indicates that endocytosed membrane, containing water channels, is able to rapidly recycle back to the surface in response to hormone restimulation. In addition, marker release declined progressively with repeated restimulation, totaling < 30% of the retrieved amount. This result indicates that a relatively large proportion of the retrieved marker reaches a nonrecycling compartment.

Effect of brefeldin A on ADH-induced transport responses of toad bladder

We have used brefeldin A (BFA) to examine the role of membrane traffic in the short-circuit current (ISC) and water permeability responses of the toad urinary bladder. BFA treatment of 1 or 5 micrograms/ml had a complex effect on the response of the ISC to antidiuretic hormone (ADH) or forskolin stimulation. Although the responses to initial challenges by ADH were not impaired by BFA, subsequent ISC responses were progressively reduced. Similarly, while the response to an initial challenge by forskolin was modestly reduced by BFA, subsequent responses were markedly reduced. Inhibition of protein synthesis with cycloheximide (CHM) affected ISC responses similarly. Neither BFA nor CHM had an effect on water permeability responses. These observations show that although the membrane traffic responsible for the water permeability response is insensitive to inhibition by BFA or CHM, the stimulation of Na+ transport becomes increasingly sensitive to these inhibitors with successive challenges by ADH or forskolin. Although initial increases in Na+ transport utilize preexisting components, subsequent responses appear to require an intact system for membrane biogenesis.