• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.31 no.9
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• pp.2672-2674
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• 2010

• The Korean Journal of Physiology
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.53-62
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• 1996

Transepithelial transport of tetraethylammonium (TEA) was studied in monolayers of opossum kidney cells cultured on permeable membrane filters. $[^{14}C]-TEA$ was transported across the OK cell monolayer from basolateral to apical side by a saturable process which can be stimulated by acidification of the apical medium. The apparent Michaelis-Menten constant $(K_{m})$ and the maximum velocity$(V_{max})$ for the transport were $41\;{\mu}M$ and 147 pmole/ mg protein/ min, respectively. The transport was significantly inhibited by unlabelled TEA, amiloride, cimetidine, choline, and mepiperphenidol added to the basolateral side at 1 mM and was slightly inhibited by 5 mM $N_{1}-methylnicotinamide\;(NMN).$ Unlabelled TEA added to the apical side stimulated the $basolateral-to-apical\;{^{14}C}-TEA$ transport, suggesting that the TEA self-exchange mechanism was involved at the apical membrane. Sulfhydryl reagents such as ${\rho}-chloromercuribenzoic\;acid\;(PCMB)\;and \;{\rho}-chloro-mercuribenzene\;sulfonate \;(PCMBS)$ and carboxyl reagents such as N,N'-dicyclohexylcarbodiimidem (DCCD) and N-ethoxy-carbonyl-2-ethoxy-1,2-dihydro-quinoline(EEDQ) inhibited the TEA transport at both the basolateral and apical membranes of the OK cell monolayer. These results suggest that OK cell monolayers possess a vectorial transport system for organic cations which is similar to that for organic cation secretion in the renal proximal tubule.