Characteristics of glutamine transport in dog jejunal brush-border membrane vesicles.

Abstract

The present study characterizes glutamine transport across brush-border membrane vesicles (BBMV) prepared from dog jejunum. The purity of these vesicles was demonstrated by a 20-fold enrichment of leucine aminopeptidase, a marker for BBM. Glutamine uptake was found to occur into an osmotically active space with no membrane binding and to exhibit temperature and pH dependence (optimal uptake at pH 7-7.5). Glutamine uptake was driven by an inwardly directed Na+ gradient with a distinct overshoot not observed under K+ gradient. Lithium could not substitute for Na+ as a stimulator of glutamine uptake. Na+-dependent glutamine uptake was not inhibited by methylaminoisobutyric acid, a typical substrate for system A, and was found to be electrogenic and saturable with a Km of 0.97 +/- 0.58 mM and a Vmax of 3.93 +/- 0.99 nmol.mg protein-1.10 s-1. A Na+-glutamine coupling ratio of 1:1 could be demonstrated by a plot of Hill transformation. Na+-independent glutamine uptake was found to be electroneutral and saturable with a Km of 3.70 +/- 0.66 mM and a Vmax of 2.70 +/- 1.55 nmol.mg protein-1.10 s-1. Inhibition studies confirmed the presence of a Na+-dependent as well as a Na+-independent carrier for glutamine uptake. We conclude that glutamine uptake across dog BBMV occurs via two transport systems: a Na+-dependent high-affinity system similar to the neutral brush-border system and a Na+-independent lower-affinity system similar to system L.