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Abstract

Three different mechanisms of anion transport have been identified for the contraluminal membrane in the proximal tubule of the rat kidney. These mechanisms are specific for the transport of sulfate, dicarboxylate and p-aminohippurate anions. Sulfate transport is inhibited by bivalent organic anions with a distance between the charges of less than 7 Å. The sulfate system acts in two modes: in a planar mode for anions with flat charged residues such as COO⁻ and a charge separation of 3–4 Å or in a bulky mode for groups such as SO₃H⁻ and a charge separation of 4–7 Å. Monovalent anions can be accepted if there is a hydrophobic core next to the negative charges. Dicarboxylate transport is inhibited exclusively by anions with two charge centers located within 5 to 9 Å, one of those possibly being a partial charge of −0.5 elementary charges. p-Aminohippurate transport is inhibited by monovalent anions, if these have a hydrophobic domain with a minimal length of about 4 Å. Bivalent anions inhibit, if they have a charge distance of 6–10 Å; both charges can be partial charges of about −0.5 elementary charges. Longer bivalent anions can be effective provided they have a sufficiently large hydrophobic domain. For the sulfate and p-aminohippurate systems it is found that anions with high acidity yield good inhibition. The overlapping specificies of the three systems with respect to charge distance and hydrophobicity allow them to accept a large variety of organic anions.