The effect of sodium on folate transport across the intestinal luminal membrane was analyzed using two techniques: the "influx" chamber and isolated brush-border membrane vesicles. Preincubation of tissue in Na+-free medium did not have a consistent effect on folic acid influx provided that Na+ was present in the test solution. Replacement of Na+ in the test solution by choline+ resulted in a significant reduction of folic acid influx. However, when intestinal sheets that had been equilibrated in Na+-free solution were exposed to test solution containing either Na+, Li+, K+, Rb+, Cs+, Tris+, or guanidinium+ as main cations, folic acid influx was not significantly decreased. Concentration-dependence studies showed that replacement of Na+ by Rb+ did not affect the saturable mechanism of folate transport. Rather, a decrease in nonsaturable folic acid uptake accounted for the slightly reduced influx observed in the presence of Rb+. Experiments with brush-border membrane vesicles revealed that methotrexate uptake was significantly higher in the presence of external Na+ than in the presence of K+, but was not different from uptake in the presence of K+ plus valinomycin. These data suggest that the saturable component of folate transport is not Na+ dependent, and nonsaturable transport of folic acid across the luminal membrane occurs in part through a conductive pathway that involves a negatively charged species of folate and a cation whose membrane permeability affects the rate of folate transport. The importance of Na+ in this process in vivo derives from the fact that Na+ is the most permeant cation available at the absorptive site in the small intestine.
Na+-dependent, electroneutral L-ascorbate transport across brush border membrane vesicles from human small intestine
