Degradation and transport of AVP by proximal tubule.

High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis revealed that [3,4,5-3H-Phe3,Arg8]vasopressin ([3H]AVP) was not degraded by isolated renal brush-border membranes or by a cortical lysosomal fraction in vitro; however, in the presence of 1 mM reduced glutathione, [3H]AVP was degraded by both preparations. Renal cortical homogenates in vitro and luminal peptidases of proximal tubule in vivo degraded [3H]AVP and in both instances yielded phenylalanine, hexapeptide AVP 1-6, heptapeptide AVP 1-7, octapeptide AVP 1-8, and two uncharacterized products X and Y. These data suggest that filtered AVP is reduced in the proximal tubule by a reduced glutathione-dependent transhydrogenase and subsequently cleaved to [3H]Phe by tubular aminopeptidases. Following microinfusion of [3H]AVP into proximal tubules, 15.7% of the label was absorbed. Five and fifteen minutes after infusion of [3H]AVP, sequestration of total label in proximal tubules was 4.5 and 2.1%, respectively, and quantitative electron microscope autoradiography revealed accumulation of grains over apical endocytic vacuoles and lysosomes consistent with endocytic uptake and rapid lysosomal degradation of AVP and/or a large metabolite. Thus, enzymatic cleavage of AVP by luminal and lysosomal peptidases in proximal tubules could involve disulfide bond, C-terminal, and N-terminal loci.