Expression of the epithelial sodium channel (ENaC) during ontogenic differentiation of the renal cortical collecting duct epithelium

 The NaCl-reabsorbing collecting duct epithelium develops by budding and branching of the embryonic ureter. The expression of Na+ channels during this branching morphogenesis was studied in the outermost branches of rat ureteric buds (UB; embryonic day E15 to postnatal day P6) and in cortical collecting ducts (CCD; days P7–P28) in primary monolayer culture. Expression of both Na+ channel mRNA and of Na+-selective membrane conductance were estimated by quantitative reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and by patch-clamp recording, respectively. UB and CCD uniformly represented a principal-like cell type in culture. Messenger RNA encoding the α-ENaC subunit was detected in oligo-dT primed cDNA (5 ng) of embryonic UB cells (E15–17) after 30 PCR cycles. The abundance of α-ENaC mRNA, when normalized by reference to β-actin, was higher by a factor of 2 in postnatal (P1–6) UB and by a factor of 5 in CCD cells (P7–14) compared with the embryonic stage. Highly Na+-selective, low-conductance channels were identified in apical patches from both UB and CCD monolayers, but only CCD cells exhibited macroscopic, amiloride-sensitive Na+ currents in whole-cell patch-clamp recordings. We conclude that α-ENaC mRNA and functional Na+ channel protein are expressed already before morphogenesis of the CCD is completed and prior to the onset of epithelial NaCl reabsorption.