THE POLARITY OF THE PROXIMAL TUBULE CELL IN RAT KIDNEY : Different Surface Charges for the Brush-Border Microvilli and Plasma Membranes from the Basal Infoldings

Two different membrane fractions were obtained from a brush-border fraction of rat kidney cortex by using their different electrical surface charges in preparative free-flow electrophoresis. One membrane fraction contained only morphologically intact microvilli and was characterized by a high specific activity of alkaline phosphatase. The other fraction morphologically resembled classical plasma membranes by possessing junctional complexes and a high Na-K-ATPase activity The contamination of the isolated membrane fractions by other cell organelles was extremely low These two fractions represent the apical (luminal) and the basal (interstitial) area of the renal proximal tubule cell membrane and clearly demonstrate the polarity of this cell.