Capillary endothelial transport of uric acid in guinea pig heart

Much of the adenosine formed in the heart is degraded by endothelial enzymes to uric acid, which is exported across the coronary capillary endothelial cell membrane before renal excretion. Because previous experiments suggested that cell permeability for uric acid is either very high (similar to water) or very low, multiple indicator-dilution experiments were carried out to distinguish between the two possibilities. An intravascular reference tracer, 131I-labeled albumin, and an extracellular reference tracer, L-[3H]glucose, were injected together with [14C]uric acid as a bolus into the coronary inflow, while fractionating the venous outflow for 90 s. Recovery of injected uric acid averaged 99.0 +/- 2.9% (mean +/- SD, n = 12) that of L-glucose. Peak capillary extraction of L-glucose and uric acid averaged 0.38 +/- 0.032 and 0.42 +/- 0.035 (P less than 0.005) compared with albumin. Except at the peaks, the dilution curves for [14C]uric acid and L-[3H]glucose coincided closely, indicating that little uric acid was transported into cells. The dilution curves were analyzed using an axially distributed, multipathway, four region mathematical model, to estimate membrane permeability-surface area (PS) products. Since the endothelial cell PS for uric acid was low (0.12 +/- 0.09 ml.g-1.min-1), approximately 3% of the PS reported for adenosine, the possibility of flow-limited exchange for uric acid is ruled out. To estimate steady-state endothelial concentrations of uric acid in vivo, equations were developed describing electrochemical potential gradients for dissociated and undissociated forms of a weak acid. Despite endothelial production, intracellular concentrations that are lower than outside are expected because the negative membrane potential and lower cellular pH assist uric acid efflux.