Brushing vitro model studies

Isolated renal cell components (cytosol, organelles, membranes) are also commonly used in vitro systems. Renal microsomes and cytosol are useful in examining the renal biotransformation and bioactivation of nephrotoxicants. Since mitochondria are frequently targets for nephrotoxicants, isolated renal mitochondria are also an important model system for determining the toxic mechanism(s) of some compounds. Also, the direct effects of toxicants on renal cell membranes can be studied in vesicles prepared from either the luminal (brush border) or basolateral (antiluminal, peritubular) membrane of renal cortical cells. The use of isolated cell components is helpful in answering specific questions about... 

The isolated brush border vesicles from the plasma membrane of the microvilU is the simplest in vitro system used so far. The interaction of lipid with rabbit intestinal brush border vesicles has been investigated by Proulx et al. [50] who found that PC, phosphatidylethanolamine, cholesterol, diglyceride as well as fatty acids were taken up by vesicles. Barsukov et al. [51] have shown that transfer of PC from PC vesicles to isolated brush border vesicles can occur in the presence of PC-exchange protein. The use of brush border vesicles is an interesting new approach that permits detailed studies of rate of transfer of specific lipids into the plasma membrane of the enterocyte. The model is seriously hmited by the fact that incubation with solutions containing bile salts at a concentration above the critical micellar concentration will result in partial or total solubilization of the membrane vesicles. 

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