Effect of sulfhydryl modification on rat kidney basolateral plasma membrane transport function.

Transport processes are the hallmark of functioning kidney. Various nephrotoxicants disrupt the transport processes to manifest nephrotoxicity. Of several nephrotoxicants, mercuric chloride (HgCl(2)) depletes the reduced glutathione (GSH) in kidney and has been observed to affect the in vitro p-aminohippurate (PAH) transport by basolateral (BL) membrane vesicles. The role of renal nonprotein sulfhydryls such as, reduced GSH has been demonstrated to affect the PAH transport by BL membrane vesicles. The role of protein sulfhydryls in transport process of PAH by BL membrane is not known. Due to mercury mediated effects on sulfhydryls, the effects of protein-sulfhydryls (-SH) modifying reagents in the current study were investigated on PAH transport by BL membrane. It was observed that modification of -SH by p-chloromercuribenzoate sulphate (pCMBS), and mercuric chloride (HgCl(2)) decreased while recovering the protein -SH with dithiothreitol treatment provided protection against the effects of pCMBS, and HgCl(2) on PAH transport by BL membrane vesicles.