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Essential role of vasopressin-regulated urea transport processes in the mammalian kidney

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Abstract

Movement of urea across plasma membranes is modulated by specialized urea transporter proteins. Two urea-transporter genes have been cloned: UT-A (Slc14a2) and UT-B (Slc14a1). In the mammalian kidney, urea transporters are essential for the urinary concentrating mechanism and maintaining body fluid homeostasis. In this article, we discuss (1) an overview of historic discoveries in urea transport mechanisms; (2) an overview of recent discoveries in the regulation of urea transporters; (3) physiological studies in UT-A1/3 −/− mice highlighting the essential role of urea transporters in the urinary concentrating mechanism; and (4) physiological studies in UT-A2 and UT-B knockout mice examining the role of countercurrent exchange in the production of a maximally concentrated urine.

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Notes

  1. As the latter part of this review focuses on mouse models of urea transport, we have focused on descriptions of the mouse kidney. For a review of other species, please see [27, 28].

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Acknowledgements

R. A. Fenton is supported by a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship and the Danish National Medical Research Council. The Water and Salt Research Center at the University of Aarhus is established and supported by the Danish National Research Foundation (Danmarks Grundforskningsfond).

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  1. The Water and Salt Research Center, Institute of Anatomy, University of Aarhus, Building 233/234, 8000, Aarhus, Denmark

    Robert A. Fenton

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Fenton, R.A. Essential role of vasopressin-regulated urea transport processes in the mammalian kidney. Pflugers Arch - Eur J Physiol 458, 169–177 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00424-008-0612-4

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