Apical plasma membrane enrichment

The preparation of plasma membrane vesicles from liver canalicular membrane is highly enriched with the canalicular (apical) isoform MRP2 (Buchler et al. 1996). Methods for the isolation of hepatocyte canalicular membranes from liver tissue have been described in detail (Bohme et al. 1994 and Boyer and Meier et al. 1990). The percentage of inside-out-oriented vesicles in these preparations amounts to 32%. Alternatively, transfected I ILK and MDCK cells are often used to study ATP-dependent transport into inside-out vesicles (Cui et al. 1999 Leier et al. 2000). 

Figure 13.4 The colloidal silica method used to enrich the apical and basolateral plasma membranes recovered from cells growing on a surface. Adapted by A. Rahbar from Spector and Leinwand (1998).

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