Carrier-Mediated Process of Putrescine Elimination at the Rat Blood-Retinal Barrier.

Putrescine is a bioactive polyamine. Its retinal concentration is strictly controlled to maintain a healthy sense of vision. The present study investigated putrescine transport at the blood-retinal barrier (BRB) to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms of putrescine regulation in the retina. Our microdialysis study showed that the elimination rate constant during the terminal phase was significantly greater (1.90-fold) than that of [14C]D-mannitol, which is a bulk flow marker. The difference in the apparent elimination rate constants of [3H]putrescine and [14C]D-mannitol was significantly decreased by unlabeled putrescine and spermine, suggesting active putrescine transport from the retina to the blood across the BRB. Our study using model cell lines of the inner and outer BRB showed that [3H]putrescine transport was time-, temperature-, and concentration-dependent, suggesting the involvement of carrier-mediated processes in putrescine transport at the inner and outer BRB. [3H]Putrescine transport was significantly reduced under Na+-free, Cl--free, and K+-replacement conditions, and attenuated by polyamines or organic cations such as choline, a choline transporter-like protein (CTL) substrate. Rat CTL1 cRNA-injected oocytes exhibited marked alterations in [3H]putrescine uptake, and CTL1 knockdown significantly reduced [3H]putrescine uptake in model cell lines, suggesting the possible participation of CTL1 in putrescine transport at the BRB.

Involvement of the carrier-mediated process in the retina-to-blood transport of spermine at the inner blood-retinal barrier.

The elimination of spermine, the end product of cellular polyamine, from the retina to the blood across the blood-retinal barrier (BRB) was investigated. The in vivo microdialysis study revealed that the elimination of [(3)H]spermine from vitreous humor after vitreous bolus injection was in a biexponential manner. The rate constant for the elimination of [(3)H]spermine during the terminal phase was estimated to be 1.67-fold greater than that of [(14)C]d-mannitol, a bulk flow marker, and the difference in the terminal elimination rate constant between [(3)H]spermine and [(14)C]d-mannitol was reduced in the presence of 50 mM spermine, suggesting a retina-to-blood transport system for [(3)H]spermine across the BRB. The retina-to-blood transport of [(3)H]spermine was also supported by a study of the retinal uptake index (RUI). The in vitro transport study with TR-iBRB2 cells, a model cell line of the inner BRB, revealed time-, concentration- and temperature-dependent transport of [(3)H]spermine, suggesting the involvement of carrier-mediated processes in spermine transport across the inner BRB. The in vitro study also suggested that the transport of spermine at the inner BRB is pH-, membrane potential- and Cl(-)-sensitive and Na(+)-insensitive, and these functional properties of spermine transport suggest only a minor contribution of spermine transporters, such as CCC9 (SLC12A8), the expression of which was suggested at the inner BRB. In the inhibition study, [(3)H]spermine transport was markedly inhibited by putrescine, spermidine, spermine and agmatine while substrates of a well-characterized organic cation transporter (OCTs/SLC22A) and a cationic amino acid transporter (CATs/SLC7A) had no effect, suggesting the involvement of unknown transporters in spermine elimination from the retina.