SUMMARYThe accumulation of advanced glycosylation end products (AGEs) is believed to be a factor in the development of aging nephropathy. We have attempted to establish a link between the formation of AGEs and the onset of renal impairment with aging, indicated by albuminuria, using a fluorescence assay and immunohistochemical detection of AGEs in the renal extracellular matrix in rats. The fluorescence of collagenase-digested Type IV collagen from GBM increased with age, from 1.65 Ϯ 0.05 AU/mM OHPro (3 months) and 1.58 Ϯ 0.04 (10 months

Successive steps leading to the development of glomerular ultrafiltration properties were explored in rat fetuses. The appearance of the lamina densa of the glomerular basement membrane (GBM) concurrently with a sharp rise in collagen biosynthesis suggest a prominent role for these events in restricting permeability to plasma proteins. Sieving functions of the glomerular barrier are shown to depend on macromolecular architecture of the GBM, negative-fixed charges of the laminae rarae representing only one factor in maintaining the structure required for selective permeability.

Food intake increases glomerular filtration and proteinuria in adult rats. That this postprandial hyperfiltration could be age dependent was investigated in 3-, 10-, 20-, and 30-mo-old rats. Glomerular filtration rate and protein excretion were measured in fed or 24 h fasted conscious animals. In the 3-mo-old rats food ingestion increased renal filtration by 45% from 1.17 +/- 0.08 to 1.73 +/- 0.11 ml.min-1.g kidney wt-1 (n = 6). As the animals became older, the differences between fed and fasted periods became smaller: in 30-mo-old rats glomerular filtration rate was 0.85 +/- 0.03 and 1.01 +/- 0.06 ml.min-1.g kidney wt-1 (n = 6) in fasted and fed conditions, respectively. Proteinuria, which was mainly albuminuria, increased slightly with age and was more markedly reduced by acute food restriction in the 30-mo-old than in the 3-mo-old rats. Because the renin-angiotensin system activity decreases with age, its role in postprandial hyperfiltration was assessed by measuring glomerular filtration in 3-mo-old animals whose angiotensin II converting-enzyme activity was chronically inhibited by daily administration of perindopril. In such experimental conditions there was no longer a difference in renal filtration between fed and fasted rats. These data indicate that 1) postprandial increase in glomerular filtration is to some extent related to the renin-angiotensin system activity; 2) short-term reduction of food intake reduces proteinuria even in senescent rats, although the feeding dependence of the glomerular filtration is blunted with age.

The mechanism by which proteins that pass through the glomerular basal lamina are taken up by proximal tubule cells is incompletely characterized. Past work has identified the kinetics of albumin binding to renal brush-border membrane. We have now purified and characterized albumin binding protein (ABP) and shown its distribution in renal proximal tubular cells. ABP was purified from rat renal proximal tubular cell brush-border membrane by affinity chromatography with rat serum albumin-Sepharose. The resulting ABP had two apparent molecular masses (55 and 31 kDa) by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Antibodies to ABP were raised in rabbits and checked by immunoassay and immunoblotting. Light-microscopic immunohistochemistry showed ABP all along the proximal tubule in the pars convoluta and pars recta. Electron-microscopic immunohistochemistry showed labeling on microvilli and in apical endocytic vacuoles, dense apical tubules, and lysosomes. These results indicate that ABP is involved in proximal tubule endocytosis.