Transport of sodium and urea in outer medullary descending vasa recta.

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Abstract
We dissected and perfused outer medullary vasa recta (OMVR) from vascular bundles in the rat. Permeabilities of sodium (PNa) and urea (Pu) were simultaneously determined from the lumen-to-bath efflux of 22Na and [14C]urea. PNa and Pu were also measured by in vivo microperfusion of descending (DVR) and ascending vasa recta (AVR) at the papillary tip of Munich-Wistar rats. In some OMVR PNa was indistinguishable from zero. The mean +/- SE of PNa (x 10(-5), cm/s) in OMVR was 76 +/- 9. Pu in OMVR was always very high (x 10(-5), cm/s), 360 +/- 14. There was no correlation between OMVR PNa and Pu. Inner medullary AVR and DVR had PNa of 115 +/- 10 and 75 +/- 10, respectively, and Pu of 121 +/- 10 and 76 +/- 11, respectively. PNa and Pu in papillary vasa recta were always nearly identical and highly correlated. Transport of [14C] urea in OMVR was reversibly inhibited by addition of unlabeled urea or phloretin to the bath and lumen, providing evidence for carrier-mediated transport. These data suggest that sodium and urea might traverse the wall of inner medullary vasa recta by a paracellular pathway while urea also crosses by a transcellular route in OMVR. Electron microscopic examination of seven in vitro perfused OMVR revealed no fenestrations and exposure of these vessels to 10 microM calcium ionophore A23187 or 1 nM angiotensin II resulted in reversible contraction, suggesting that in vitro perfused OMVR are DVR only.

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