NDT Advance Access originally published online on July 21, 2006
Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation 2006 21(10):2938-2942; doi:10.1093/ndt/gfl330
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Does TammHorsfall proteinuric acid binding play a significant role in urate homeostasis?
1University of Florida, Department of Medicine, Gainesville, Florida, USA and 2Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Médicale, Unit 652, Paris, France
Correspondence and offprint requests to: Michael S. Gersch, MD, University of Florida, Room CG98, 1600 SW Archer Rd, PO Box 100224, Gainesville, FL 32610-0224, USA. Email: gerscms{at}medicine.ufl.edu
Background. Mutations in TammHorsfall protein (THP), also known as uromodulin, lead to a group of diseases known as the uromodulin storage disorders. Clinically, these diseases present with tubulo-interstitial damage, progressive renal dysfunction, hyperuricaemia, and gout. However, it remains unclear how a mutation in THP, a protein produced in the thick ascending limb, can cause hyperuricaemia when most of the uric acid transport is believed to occur in the proximal tubule. However, one study in humans suggests that uric acid could also be secreted in the distal tubule. Thus, an attractive hypothesis could be that THP would bind to uric acid in the distal tubule, and decrease its subsequent reabsorption in the distal nephron.
Methods. We screened for uric acid binding to THP using four independent binding assays.
Results. There was no evidence that uric acid could bind to THP.
Conclusion. THPuric acid binding does not seem to play a significant role in the regulation of urate homeostasis.
Keywords: binding; familial juvenile hyperuricaemic nephropathy (FJHN); medullary cystic kidney disease (MCKD); thick ascending limb; uromodulin