Iminoglycinuria - Pathophysiology

Pathophysiology

Glycine, proline and hydroxyproline share common renal tubular mechanisms of reabsorption, a function specific to the proximal tubule. Both reabsorption or absorption of glycine and imino acids takes place respectively at the proximal tubule or intestinal brush border epithelium. The more selective transport of proline and other imino acids is driven at the molecular level by a mammalian cellular transport mechanism aptly known as system IMINO.

While no single genetic mutation has been established as the cause of iminoglycinuria; several mutations, affecting transport mechanisms shared by glycine, proline and hydroxyproline, as well as those that selectively transport either glycine or imino acids, including the IMINO system, are known to be associated with the disorder. When combined, these factors will result in a variable phenotype for iminoglycinuria depending on which mutations are present. However, despite the role that intestinal malabsorption of glycine and imino acids can play in iminoglycinuria, the primary defect disrupts their renal transport and reabsorption. This is evident, as inherited iminoglycinuria can be clinically present with no intestinal involvement.

In mammals, including humans, the transport of amino and imino acids from the lumen (interior) of the intestine or the renal proximal tubule into the cells occurs at the brush border membrane of the epithelium (moist, tightly packed cellular lining of many tissues and organs of the body). Here, cotransporters such as sodium or chloride (part of the system of Na-K-Cl cotransporters) couple with the amino or imino acids on the molecular level and transport them through specific integral membrane proteins that form ion channels, which are located within the cell membrane. From the cells, the absorbed or reabsorbed amino and imino acids eventually reach the blood. Absorption refers to the overall process happening in the intestine in lieu of normal digestive breakdown of proteins, while reabsorption refers to the process occurring in the renal proximal tubule to reclaim amino and imino acids that have been filtered out of the blood via the glomerulus.

These forms of transport require energy, as the products being transported are usually moving against a higher concentration gradient. This process, called active transport, get its energy from ATP and other ATP-related cotransport systems that produce energy, like the sodium-potassium pump.