Diffusive transport of solute in the rat medullary microcirculation. Pallone, Thomas L., Soren Nielsen, Erik P. Silldorff, and Sai Yang. Division of Nephrology, The M.S. Hershey Medical Center of the Pennsylvania State University, Hershey, PA and the Department of Cell Biology, Institute of Anatomy, University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark
APStracts 2:0023F, 1995.
Diffusive transport of solute in the rat medullary microcirculation. Outer medullary descending vasa recta (OMDVR) permeability to sodium (Pna) is much lower than to urea (Pu). Based on these findings, we hypothesized that sodium and urea diffuse across the OMDVR wall by separate routes. To further test this, we simultaneously perfused OMDVR with 22Na and 36Cl, 14Curea, 3Hraffinose, or tritiated water (THO). The permeability of OMDVR to 22Na and 3Hraffinose was found to increase markedly and reversibly with perfusion rate. Pna was highly correlated with PCl, and PRAF, (R=0.90, 0.95, respectively) but not with Pu (R=0.23). PRAF was also correlated with inulin permeability (PIN) (R=0.93). The intercepts for the regressions of Pna with PCl and PRAF and for PRAF with PIN were zero. In contrast, OMDVR with low Pna retained very high diffusional water permeability (PD) and Pu, a finding which is consistent with separate routes for permeation of those tracers. We previously established that thiourea is a competitive inhibitor of OMDVR urea transport. In the presence of 100 mM thiourea, OMDVR Pna and Pu was correlated (R=0.71) but retained an intercept much greater than zero. We conclude that Na, Cl, raffinose and inulin are likely to traverse the OMDVR wall through a common pathway while specific mechanisms exist to regulate the permeation by urea and water.

Received 30 September 1994; accepted in final form 14 February
1995.
APS Manuscript Number F349-4.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Renal Fluid Electrolyte
Physiology).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1995 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on  1 March 1995.