AJP - Renal Physiology, Vol 247, Issue 4 665-F671, Copyright © 1984 by American Physiological Society

ARTICLES

Ontogeny of renal mineralocorticoid receptors and urinary electrolyte responses in the rat

G. Stephenson, M. Hammet, G. Hadaway and J. W. Funder

We examined the ontogeny of cytosol mineralocorticoid receptors in renal inner medulla-papilla (IM-PAP) and outer medulla-cortex (OM-CX) and of a biological response to administered corticosteroids (urinary K+/Na+ ratio). Rats at early (7-9 days), intermediate (13-15 days), and late (23-30 days) stages of maturation were used. Young rats were found to be essentially insensitive to aldosterone, in contrast to rats aged 13-15 days and older. Scatchard analysis of IM-PAP and OM-CX cytosol showed equivalent high-affinity aldosterone binding sites at all ages. The affinity of these sites was constant (Kd, 4 degrees C approximately 0.5 nM) and their concentration varied only slightly over maturation. In a series of in vivo nuclear transfer studies, the hyposensitivity to aldosterone in young rats did not seem to be due to a difference in the nuclear binding of aldosterone-receptor complexes. The resistance of the immature (7-9 days) rat kidney to aldosterone thus appears to be a postreceptor phenomenon. The maturational events allowing expression of mineralocorticoid-inducible genes in the kidney remain to be determined.

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