Abstract:
The organic cation transporter is a membrane transporter protein that possesses
the main function of translocating organic cation across a plasma membrane. The
rabbit organic cation transporter 1 (rbOCT1) and rabbit organic cation transporter 2
(rbOCT2) were cloned from the kidney, the major organ that plays a role in the
excretion of toxic substances and waste products. Due to this localization, these
organic cation transporters (rbOCT1 and rbOCT2) may be responsible for the first step
of organic cations secretion in renal tubules. The ultimate goal of the present study was
to determine the functional contribution of these two transporters in the S2 segment of
the rabbit renal proximal tubule. In this study we used cloned transporters that were
expressed in the heterologous expression system to test for the functions of a single
transporter at a time. COS-7 cells and CHO-K1 cells are mammalian cell lines that
were used in these studies. First, we compared the effects of different organic cations
as inhibitors of tetraethylammonium (TEA) transport into cultured cells that expressed
the rabbit orthologs of either OCT1 or OCT2. Both transporters displayed similar
affinities for TEA in CHO-K1 cells, Kts of 19.9 and 34.5 μM for rbOCT1 and rbOCT2,
respectively. Similarly, some OCs showed little capacity to discriminate between the
two processes (IC50s for ephedrine of 13.6 and 24.2 μM for OCT1 and OCT2,
respectively). However, rbOCT2 had a higher affinity for cimetidine and NBD-TMA
(1.3 and 1.4 μM) than did rbOCT1 (97.3 and 108 μM, respectively). Conversely,
rbOCT1 had a higher affinity for tyramine and pindolol than did OCT2 (21.2 and 2.4
μM vs. 361 and 50 μM, respectively). We designated these as ‘discriminatory
inhibitors’ and used them to determine the relative contribution of rbOCT1 and
rbOCT2 for TEA transport in single S2 segments of the rabbit renal proximal tubule.
Cimetidine and NBD-TMA were high affinity inhibitors of TEA transport in S2
segments (median IC50s of 12.3 μM and 1.4 μM, respectively); by comparison,
tyramine and pindolol were low affinity inhibitors (265 μM and 69.3 μM,
respectively). These IC50 values were sufficiently close to those for rbOCT2 to support
the conclusion that TEA transport in the S2 segment of the rabbit renal proximal tubule
is dominated by rbOCT2, with little contribution by rbOCT1. However, the profile of
inhibition of tyramine (a rbOCT1-selective substrate) transport in single S2 segments
indicated as well that rbOCT1 may play a dominant role in the uptake of selected
organic cation substrates.