Amino acid transport in the renal proximal tubule

In the kidney the proximal tubule is responsible for the uptake of amino ac ids. This occurs via a variety of functionally and structurally different a mino acid transporters located in the luminal and basolateral membrane. Som e of these transporters show an ion-dependence (e.g. Na+, Cl- and K+) or us e an H+-gradient to drive transport. Only a few amino acid transporters hav e been cloned or functionally characterized in detail so far and their stru cture is known, while little is known about a majority of amino acid transp orters. Only few attempts have been untertaken looking at the regulation of amino acid transport. We summarized more recent information on amino acid transport in the renal proximal tubule emphasizing functional and regulator y aspects.