Dipeptide-induced Cl−secretion in proximal tubule cells

During a survey of dipeptides that might be transported by the renal PEPT2 transporter in proximal tubule cells, we discovered that acidic dipeptides could stimulate transient secretory anion current and conductance increases in intact cell monolayers. The stimulatory effect of acidic dipeptides was observed in several proximal tubule cell lines that have been recently developed by immortalization of early proximal tubule primary cultures from the Wistar-Kyoto and spontaneously hypertensive rat strains and humans, suggesting that this phenomenon is a characteristic of proximal tubule cells. The electrical current induced in intact monolayers by Ala-Asp, a representative of these acidic dipeptides, must represent Cl− secretion rather than Na+ or H+ absorption, because 1) it was Na+ independent, 2) it showed a pH dependence different from that of the PEPT2 cotransporter, and 3) it correlated with an Ala-Asp-induced increase in Cl− conductance of the apical membrane in basolaterally amphotericin B-permeabilized monolayers. The secretory current could be inhibited by stilbene disulfonates, but not diphenylamine-2-carboxylates, suggesting a non-cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator type of Cl− conductance. The effect of Ala-Asp was dose dependent, with an apparent 50% effective concentration of ∼1 mM. Ala-Asp also produced intracellular acidification, suggesting that acidic dipeptides are also substrates for an H+-peptide cotransporter.