ABSTRACT
The experiments reported in this paper aim at characterizing the carboxylic acid transport, the interactions of pyruvate and citrate with their transport sites and specificity. The study of these carriers was performed using isotopic solutes for the influx measurements in brush-border membrane vesicles under zero trans conditions where the membrane potential was abolished with KCl preloading with valinomycin or equilibrium exchange conditions and delta psi = 0. Under zero trans condition and delta psi = 0, the influence of pyruvate concentrations on its initial rates of transport revealed the existence of two families of pyruvate transport sites, one with a high affinity for pyruvate (Kt = 88 microM) and a low affinity for sodium (Kt = 57.7 mM) (site I), the second one with a low affinity for pyruvate (Kt = 6.1 mM) and a high affinity for sodium (Kt = 23.9 mM) (site II). The coupling factor [Na]/[pyruvate] stoichiometry were determined at 0.25 mM and 8 mM pyruvate and estimated at 1.8 for site I, and 3 when the first and the second sites transport simultaneously. Under chemical equilibrium (delta psi congruent to 0) single isotopic labeling, transport kinetics of pyruvate carrier systems have shown a double interaction of pyruvate with the transporter; the sodium/pyruvate stoichiometry also expressed according to a Hill plot representation was n = 1.7. The direct method of measuring Na+/pyruvate stoichiometry from double labeling kinetics and isotopic exchange, for a time course, gives a n = 1.67. Studies of transport specificity, indicate that the absence of inhibition of lactate transport by citrate and the existence of competitive inhibition of lactate and citrate transports by pyruvate leads to the conclusion that the low pyruvate affinity site can be attributed to the citrate carrier (tricarboxylate) and the high pyruvate affinity site to the lactate carrier (monocarboxylate).
