Abstract
Summary
Experiments were done to investigate whether molecular discrimination occurred in the renal handling of two species of serum albumin. Human albumin, 40 mg, was infused into rats; it was removed from serum (t1/2 = 15.8 hr) more rapidly than previously reported measurements of removal of endogenous rat albumin (t1/2 = 46 hr). Human albumin was cleared by the rat kidney at a constant rate of 0.0026 μl/min—a value virtually identical to that of rat albumin (0.0020 μl/min). In rats with proteinuria following the single iv injection of puromycin aminonucleoside, human albumin was removed from serum with a half-life of 17.6 hr. During the development of the nephrotic syndrome, the renal clearances of human and rat albumin increased proportionately.
Despite the difference in the serum concentration and rates of removal of the two species of albumin, renal handling of the two species was similar. Thus the kidney did not appear to discriminate in its handling of these two proteins.
Marie Gaizutis was supported by the M. L. and S. R. Rosenthal and by the E. M. Silver Funds. She has submitted these data in partial fulfillment of the research requirement for the Ph.D. degree in the Department of Biology, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Illinois.
Amadeo J. Pesce was an Established Investigator of the American Heart Association.
This work was supported by NIH Grant Nos. AM-12330 and AM-17330.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.