Tubular capacity of phosphate transport in phosphate-deprived rats: effects of nicotinamide and PTH.

The present study tested the hypothesis that nicotinamide and/or parathyroid hormone (PTH) would reverse the resistance of phosphate-deprived rats to the phosphaturic effects of phosphate infusions by reducing the tubular capacity for phosphate transport. The response to progressively increasing rates of phosphate infusion (1, 2, and 3 mumol/min) was evaluated in thyroparathyroidectomized (TPTX) rats fed low phosphate diet (0.07%) for 4 days and treated with either vehicle or nicotinamide 2 h before the experiment. Following phosphate infusions, phosphate excretion was unchanged in vehicle-treated rats but increased progressively in nicotinamide-treated rats to 60% of the final rate of infusion. In a second series conducted in the presence of exogenous PTH, vehicle-treated rats responded to phosphate infusions by increasing phosphate excretion to 80-90% of the rate of infusion. In the presence of both nicotinamide and PTH, the rate of phosphate excretion matched the rate of infusion. Vehicle-treated rats displayed the highest reabsorptive rates without reaching a transport maximum, whereas a lower maximum reabsorptive rate was evident in nicotinamide-treated rats. However, in both groups given PTH, not only was the transport maximum lower but it declined with further increases in filtered load. We conclude that nicotinamide and PTH reverse the effects of dietary phosphate deprivation by decreasing the tubular capacity for phosphate transport.