Table 1.

Renal aquaporins

Protein	Localization	Transport	Physiology	Regulated factorsa	Pathophysiology from transgenic miceb	Human gene mutations
Aquaporin-1	Apical and basolateral plasma membranes of proximal tubule cells, thin limb of Henle’s loop cells and descending vasa recta	Water	Urine concentration process, cell migration	Unknown	Polyuria and increased water intake defect in cell recovery after injury	Mild urinary concentrating defect
Aquaporin-7	Apical plasma membrane of proximal tubule cells (s3)	Water, anions and glicerol	Water reabsorption, glycerol reabsorption	Unknown	Glyceroluria, defective glycerol metabolism, obesity, smaller islet cells	Defective glycerol metabolism
Aquaporin-11	Endoplasmic reticulum of proximal tubules cells	Water	Organelle maintenance	Unknown	Polycystic kidney (fatal)	No abnormalities reported
Aquaporin-2	Apical plasma membrane and intracellular vesicle of collecting duct principal cells	Water	Urine concentration process	Vasopressin, prostaglandin E2, dopamine, aldosterone, PKA, cAMP, RhoA, intracellular calcium, RyR1, RapGEF-3, MLCK, AKAPs, phosphodiesterases, calcitonin, SNAREs, Spa-1, clathrin-mediated endocytosis, LIP5, TonEBP	Diabetes insipidus	Diabetes insipidus
Aquaporin-3	Basolateral plasma membrane of collecting duct principal cells	Water, urea	Urine concentration process	Vasopressin, aldosterone, insulin, copper	Polyuria and increased water intake	No abnormalities reported
Aquaporin-4	Basolateral plasma membrane of collecting duct principal cells	Water	Urine concentration process	PKC, dopamine	Mild urinary concentration defect	No abnormalities reported
Aquaporin-6	Intracellular vesicles of collecting duct intercalated cells	Water, anions and glicerol	Acid secretion	Mercuric ion	Not known	No abnormalities reported

^aSee text for details

^bTransgenic mice with loss of transporter function