Both putrescine and the polyamines spermidine and spermine are essential factors for growth and differentiation in all cells of higher eucaryotes. In principle, increased requirements of polyamines in mucosal cells either can be met by de novo-synthesis or by increasing the uptake from lumen (brush border membrane) or bloodstream (basolateral membrane). We therefore evaluated putrescine uptake in intestinal mucosal cells by using human brush border membrane vesicles (BBMV). Intravesicular uptake of putrescine was shown by osmoplots. This process was not saturable over a substrate range from 1 to 80 microM. Putrescine transport was also found to be independent of temperature (Q10 = 1.23). No differences in putrescine uptake rates were found in the presence or absence of Na+, and there was no evidence for any dependence of putrescine uptake from other cations. Our data indicate that putrescine uptake by human intestinal brush border membrane vesicles occurs by passive diffusion. It is concluded that a formerly described saturable and carrier mediated uptake in isolated intestinal mucosal cells from different species is probably influenced by active transport across the basolateral membranes. Therefore, further studies with isolated basolateral membranes are advocated.