Abstract. Organic anion transport in intact renal proximal tubule cells in animal model systems is downregulated by treatments that activate protein kinase C (PKC). How this downregulation is achieved is not yet known. Stimulation of PKC with sn-1,2-dioctanoylglycerol resulted in strong inhibition of p-aminohippurate transport mediated by the cloned human organic anion transporter 1 (hOAT1) expressed in Xenopus oocytes and HEK293 cells, as well as hOAT1 internalization in both expression systems. The sn-1,2-dioctanoylglycerol-induced transport inhibition was partially prevented by staurosporine. It was independent of the conserved canonical PKC consensus sites in hOAT1, however, and was unaffected by agents that destabilize actin filaments or microtubules, which altered baseline hOAT1-mediated p-aminohippurate uptake activity in oocytes. It is concluded that PKC-induced hOAT1 downregulation is achieved through carrier retrieval from the cell membrane and does not involve phosphorylation of the predicted classic hOAT1 PKC consensus sites.The renal secretory organic anion transport pathway plays an important role in the elimination of a variety of potentially toxic environmental chemicals, such as phenoxyacetate herbicides and fungicides, as well as anionic drugs, including -lactam antibiotics, cytostatic agents, diuretics, and antiviral drugs (1,2). The importance of this pathway is exemplified by the increased toxicity of methotrexate when it is coadministered with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (3), which compete for the same elimination pathway (4) and thus lead to higher serum methotrexate concentrations (3). In a number of nonmammalian and mammalian renal proximal tubule model systems, peritubular uptake and/or transepithelial secretion of prototypical organic anions have been demonstrated to be inhibited by agents that stimulate protein kinase C (PKC) activity. The nonselective PKC activator phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate (PMA) inhibited cellular and luminal fluorescein accumulation in isolated nonperfused killifish renal tubules (5), net secretion of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid across winter flounder proximal tubule monolayer cultures (6), peritubular uptake and transepithelial fluorescein flux in isolated nonperfused (7) and perfused (8) rabbit proximal tubule S2 segments, respectively, and basolateral uptake and transcellular movement of p-aminohippurate (PAH) in opossum kidney cells (9,10).Because a number of agents, such as parathyroid hormone (PTH) (11), ␣ 1 -adrenergic agonists (12), angiotensin II (13), and bradykinin (14), modulate renal proximal tubule function via activation of PKC, these agents might be expected to impair renal elimination of organic anions. Indeed, bradykinin and phenylephrine were observed to inhibit basolateral uptake (7) and transepithelial secretion (8) of fluorescein in isolated rabbit proximal tubule S2 segments, and these effects were suppressed by the PKC inhibitor bisindolylmaleimide.On the basis of their localization, two of the cloned organic anion transpo...