Competitive Inhibition of AQP7-mediated Glycerol Transport by Glycerol Derivatives

Abstract

Aquaporin 7 (AQP7) is an aquaglyceroporin that has recently been found to operate as a facilitative carrier rather than a channel for glycerol, although its primary function is as a water channel. To probe into its substrate specificity, we examined the inhibitory effect of a series of acyl glycerol derivatives on glycerol transport mediated by human AQP7 stably expressed in Madin-Darby canine kidney II cells. According to kinetic analyses, AQP7-mediated glycerol transport was found to be competitively inhibited by monoacetin, monobutyrin and diacetin. Therefore, it may be possible that they all could be recognized as substrates by AQP7. The inhibition constant (K_i) of monoacetin (134 µM) was smaller than that of diacetin (420 µM), but greater than the Michaelis constant for glycerol (11.8 µM). Considering another finding that inhibition by triacetin was insignificant, it is likely that a decrease in the number of hydroxyl groups in the glycerol molecule by acetyl derivatization leads to a decrease in affinity for AQP7. The K_i of monobutyrin (80 µM) was, on the other hand, comparable with that of monoacetin, suggesting that the extension of the acyl chain by two hydrocarbon units does not have an impact on affinity for AQP7.