pH control of hepatic glutamine degradation. Role of transport.

Glutamine uptake is decreased in isolated perfused rat liver when the extracellular pH is lowered. This is also observed in the presence of ammonia concentrations nearly 20-fold above that required for half-maximal stimulation of glutaminase, indicating that the effect is not explained by a submaximal ammonium activation of the enzyme. In livers perfused with a physiological glutamine concentration (0.6 mM), the tissue glutamine but not glutamate content is strongly dependent on the extracellular pH and increases from 2.9 mumol/g to 4.7 mumol/g liver when the extracellular pH is increased from 7.3 to 7.5. Subfractionation of the livers revealed that the mitochondrial glutamine concentration increases from about 15 mM to 50 mM, when the extracellular pH is raised from 7.3 to 7.7, whereas the cytosolic glutamine concentration increases only slightly. Simultaneously the cytosolic and mitochondrial pH values are largely unaffected, being 7.25 and 7.7 respectively. Thus, the pH gradient between mitochondria and cytosol remains unchanged when the extracellular pH varies. Amiloride (2 mM) inhibits glutamine uptake by the liver and abolishes the extra/intracellular pH gradient. With amiloride present, tissue glutamine levels are no longer dependent on extracellular pH and are only about 2 mumol/g liver. It is concluded that pH control of glutaminase flux is also mediated by variations of the mitochondrial glutamine concentration pointing to a regulatory role of the glutamine carrier in the mitochondrial membrane for hepatic glutamine breakdown.