Description
Aquaporins are a family of small integral membrane proteins related to the major intrinsic protein, also known as AQP0/Aquaporin 0. Aquaporin 3 is localized at the basal lateral membranes of collecting duct cells in the kidney. In addition to its water channel function, Aquaporin 3 has been found to facilitate the transport of nonionic small solutes such as urea and glycerol, but to a smaller degree. It has been suggested that water channels can be functionally heterogeneous and possess water and solute permeation mechanisms. Alternative splicing of this gene results in multiple transcript variants encoding different isoforms