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Vasopressin stimulates formation of coated pits in rat kidney collecting ducts

Nature volume 302, pages 253–255 (1983)Cite this article

Abstract

The water permeability of collecting ducts is greatly increased by the antidiuretic hormone, vasopressin1. This permeability increase is associated with the appearance of intramembrane particle (IMP) clusters on the luminal plasma membranes of principal cells of the collecting duct epithelium2,3. IMP aggregates have also been related to an increase in water permeability of two other vasopressin-sensitive epithelia, the amphibian urinary bladder4 and the amphibian epidermis5, and it has been proposed that these specialized membrane domains might represent specific water-permeable membrane patches, induced by the hormone in their respective epithelia. Using a cytochemical probe for membrane cholesterol, filipin6, we show here that the membrane patches in rat kidney are selectively devoid of filipin-sterol complexes and that when identified in thin sections, they have a cytoplasmic bristle coat: both of these features are characteristics of coated pits7 which, in other systems, are involved in receptor-mediated endocytosis8. We also show that vasopressin induces the appearance of coated pits on collecting duct luminal membranes in Brattleboro homozygous rats, which have hereditary diabetes insipidus9.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Histology and Embryology, University of Geneva Medical School, 1211, Geneva, 4, Switzerland

    Dennis Brown & Lelio Orci

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  1. Dennis Brown
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  2. Lelio Orci
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Brown, D., Orci, L. Vasopressin stimulates formation of coated pits in rat kidney collecting ducts. Nature 302, 253–255 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1038/302253a0

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