• van Bennekum AM Institute of Human Nutrition, the Department of Medicine, and the Institute of Cancer Research of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, New York 10032, USA., S Wei, M V Gamble, S Vogel, R Piantedosi, M Gottesman, V Episkopou, and W S Blaner.
• Institute of Human Nutrition, the Department of Medicine, and the Institute of Cancer Research of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, New York 10032, USA.
• J. Biol. Chem. 2001 Jan 12;276(2):1107-13.

AbstractTransthyretin (TTR) acts physiologically in the transport of retinol in the circulation. We previously reported the generation and partial characterization of TTR-deficient (TTR(-)) mice. TTR(-) mice have very low circulating levels of retinol and its specific transport protein, retinol-binding protein (RBP). We have examined the biochemical basis for the low plasma retinol-RBP levels. Cultured primary hepatocytes isolated from wild type (WT) and TTR(-) mice accumulated RBP in their media to an identical degree, suggesting that RBP was being secreted from the hepatocytes at the same rate. In vivo experiments support this conclusion. For the first 11 h after complete nephrectomy, the levels retinol and RBP rose in the circulations of WT and TTR(-) mice at nearly identical rates. However, human retinol-RBP injected intravenously was more rapidly cleared from the circulation (t(12) = 0.5 h for TTR(-) versus t(12) >6 h for WT) and accumulated faster in the kidneys of TTR(-) compared with WT mice. The rate of infiltration of the retinol-RBP complex from the circulation to tissue interstitial fluids was identical in both strains. Taken together, these data indicate that low circulating retinol-RBP levels in TTR(-) mice arise from increased renal filtration of the retinol-RBP complex.

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