Date of Award

8-1987

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Biology

Abstract

The existence of a sodium-ion-for-hydrogen-ion exchange mechanism in the membranes of certain epithelial cells has been demonstrated by many investigators (Murer et al., 1976; Tsai et al., 1984; Seiler et al., 1985 ) • This mechanism has been shown to exchange one Na+ for one H+ (Aronson & Igarashi, 1986) and is thought to be more prominent in the brush-border membranes (Murer et al., 197 6; Reenstra et al., 1981 ; Ives et al., 1983) of mammalian kidney tubules and intestinal tissues than in basolateral membranes of these tissues. The roles the exchanger plays in the cell may include intracellular pH regulation (Boron, 1986a, b; Montrose & Murer, 1986; Doppler et al., 1986) and cell volume regulation (Grinstein et al., 1986). Isolated membrane vesicles provide a simple experimental tool with which to study the transport properties of plasma membranes. This method allows problems associated with whole cell or animal studies, such as interfering metabolic reactions and tissue complexities, to be overcome rather easily. Additionally the composition of the intravesicular and the extravesicular medium can be changed to accommodate the experimental design

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