Multiple indicator dilution and the kidney: kinetics, permeation, and transport in vivo

Vascular exchange in the kidney. Regional characterization by multiple indicator tomography

In previous work with the method of multiple indicator dilution (MID), we have established that a spatially distributed model of transcapillary exchange proposed by Goresky, Ziegler, and Bach (GZB) accurately describes, at the in vivo whole-organ level, the handling of extracellular indicators in the canine renal cortex. To date, however, it has not been possible to assess the key hypothesis that GZB corresponds to the actual local mechanism of exchange in vivo and is not just a compact summary of the kidney's average whole-organ behavior. By adapting the MID method to high speed computed tomography (CT), we are now able to report that the GZB mechanism is an accurate description of renal cortical transcapillary exchange down to volumes of cortical tissue comprising no more than a few per cent of the total cortical mass, i.e., containing no more than a few thousand nephrons. A small bolus of iohexol (radiopaque extracellular indicator) or iodipamide ethyl ester microparticles (radiopaque plasma indicator) injected into the renal artery was followed by CT as it passed through the kidney and into the renal vein. Time-attenuation value curves of the two contrast media obtained from the renal vein and from regions of interest in the cortex were then modeled with the GZB mechanism and with a more complex formulation that includes GZB as a limiting case. When applied to the data, the models converged to GZB as the best fit for each region examined. The GZB mechanism is found to provide excellent agreement with the regional data.

Explaining glomerular pores with fiber matrices. A visualization study based on computer modeling

The extracellular space of the glomerular capillary wall is occupied by a complex meshwork of fibrous molecules. Little is understood about how the size, shape, and charge recognition properties of glomerular ultrafiltration arise from this space-filling fiber matrix. We studied the problem of size recognition by visualizing the void volume accessible to hard spheres in computer-generated three-dimensional homogeneous random fiber matrices. The spatial organization of the void volume followed a complex "blob-and-throat" pattern in which circumscribed cavities of free space within the matrix ("blobs") were joined to adjacent cavities by narrower throats of void space. For sufficiently small solutes, chains of blobs and throats traversed the matrix, providing pathways for trans-matrix permeation. The matrices showed threshold or gating properties with respect to permeation: solutes whose radius exceeded a critical value, at which a throat on the last connected trans-matrix pathway pinched off, could not cross, whereas smaller solutes had nonzero permeability. The thresholds may give the glomerular fiber matrix porelike response properties and explain why pore models have been such a useful means of treating permselectivity.

A role for aminopeptidase N in Na(+)-dependent amino acid transport in bovine renal brush-border membranes

A monoclonal antibody FD19 which removes reconstitutable Na(+)-dependent amino acid transport activity from solubilized bovine renal brush-border membrane vesicles was found to react specifically with the enzyme aminopeptidase N. Cleavage of aminopeptidase N from the membranes with papain inhibited Na(+)-dependent amino acid transport activity without affecting that of alpha-methyl D-glucoside. Removal of aminopeptidase substantially increased the Km values for the Na(+)-dependent transport of alanine, glutamine, leucine and phenylalanine without affecting the Vmax. Both Na(+)-dependent amino acid transport and aminopeptidase activity in intact vesicles were competitively inhibited by amino acids with very similar specificity. These results suggest that the amino acid-binding sites of aminopeptidase N and the transporter interact in some way to increase the Km of the transport process for its substrates. However, independent direct inactivation of the transport system by papain cannot be ruled out.