Role and characteristics of epithelial amino acid/peptide transport

In cell culture systems for renal reabsorption, the roles and the regulation of membrane transport systems for amino acids and peptides were characterized. It was shown that the uptake of proline in the apical membrane is mediated by SIT1 (Sodium / imino-acid transporter). An amino acid deprivation increased the uptake of proline severalfold by the synthesis of a second transport system, probably the SNAT2-system. For the first time, the transport of selenoamino acids was also analyzed in detail with various techniques and assigned to discrete amino acid transport proteins of epithelial cells. The role of glycine and cysteine, as well as cysteinyl-glycine for antioxidative capacity of the cell was observed in cell models, which selectively expressed the peptide transporter PEPT2. The importance of these precursors for cellular synthesis of glutathione was evident here.

Autorentext

Dr. Alexander Nickel, born in 1978, studied Nutritional Science and Home Economics at the Technical University of Munich with an extra focus on molecular nutritional physiology. His main interests are the renal and intestinal transport mechanisms of amino acids.