Stoichiometry of organic anion/dicarboxylate exchange in membrane vesicles from rat renal cortex and hOAT1-expressing cells

Although membrane vesicle studies have established the driving forces that mediate renal organic anion secretion and the organic anion transporter Oat1 has now been cloned in several species, its stoichiometry has remained uncertain. In this study, we used electrophysiology, kinetic measurements, and static head experiments to determine the coupling ratio for Oat1-mediated organic anion/dicarboxylate exchange. Initial experiments demonstrated that uptake of PAH by voltage-clamped Xenopus laevis oocytes expressing rOat1 led to net entry of positive charge, suggesting that coupling was one-to-one. This conclusion was confirmed by kinetic analysis of PAH and glutarate fluxes in native basolateral membrane vesicles from the rat renal cortex, which showed a Hill coefficient of 1. Similarly, static head experiments on the rat vesicles also showed a 1:1 coupling ratio. To confirm these conclusions in a system expressing a single cloned transporter, Madin-Darby canine kidney cells were stably transfected with the...