Aggregate-carrying membranes during ADH stimulation and washout in toad bladder

J. Muller and W. A. Kachadorian Aggregates of intramembrane particles are found in cytoplasmic structures that we now term "aggrephores." Antidiuretic hormone (ADH) causes aggrephores to fuse with the luminal membrane. Aggregates subsequently become dispersed in the membrane and behave as sites for water flow. In the present studies we examined further the behavior of aggrephores. 1) Bladders stimulated for 10, 30, or 60 min in the absence of an osmotic gradient had two to three times more fusions as those stimulated in the presence of a gradient, indicating that aggrephore fusion frequency is influenced by water flow. 2) ADH stimulation did not change the projected luminal surface area of granular cells. Thus fused aggrephores remain fixed while aggregates move from the aggrephore to flat areas of luminal membrane. 3) Horseradish peroxidase, present in the mucosal baths of bladders stimulated with and then washed of ADH, was found in the lumen of cytoplasmic aggrephores; aggrephores therefore detach from the luminal membrane during washout. The same bladders had about twice as many multivesicular body-type lysosomes as unstimulated bladders, suggesting that, after detachment, aggrephores may join or become lysosomes. 4) Colchicine did not affect the rate of disappearance of fusion sites during washout, whereas cytochalasin B slowed it, suggesting that aggrephore detachment depends of microfilaments, but not microtubules.