Sulfate transport in normal and cystic fibrosis fibroblasts

Abstract The glycoconjugate component of cystic fibrosis (CF) epithelial secretions is abnormally sulfated. Previous studies have suggested that some but not all CF fibroblasts express this secondary defect. We tested the hypothesis that the major CF mutation ( Δ F 508 Δ F 508 ) is correlated with elevated sulfate transport, by measuring the rates of saturable and nonsaturable [ 35 S]SO 4 2− uptake in skin fibroblasts isolated from CF patients of known genotype. No significant differences were apparent between normal and CF fibroblasts.