Effects of replacing medium sodium by choline, caesium, or rubidium, on water and ion contents of renal cortical slices

1. Renal cortical slices from rat, rabbit, and guinea-pig were incubated in media in which choline, caesium or rubidium replaced sodium. 2. Slices of rabbit and guinea-pig renal cortex incubated in oxygenated choline Ringer decreased in volume initially and did not swell over 3 hr at 25° C. There was a steady loss of potassium. Inhibition of metabolism (N 2 + 1 m M iodoacetamide) caused some swelling. Ouabain, 10 m M , in choline Ringer affected neither loss of potassium nor tissue water content. 3. Slices of rat renal cortex similarly incubated in choline Ringer swelled over 3 hr at 25° C whether or not metabolism was inhibited; ouabain (15 m M ) affected neither tissue potassium loss nor tissue water content. 4. Incubation in choline Ringer containing either 0·2 m M p -chloromercuribenzoic acid, or 1 m M ethacrynic acid increased the tissue water content of guinea-pig renal cortical slices. 5. Depletion of cellular potassium (by preliminary incubation in oxygenated potassium-free sodium Ringer with 10 m M ouabain at 30° C) resulted in increased tissue water content when rabbit renal cortical slices were subsequently incubated in oxygenated choline Ringer at 25° C for 3 hr. 6. There was no evidence of energy-dependent extrusion of water or ions from either equilibrated rat or rabbit renal cortical slices leached at 0·5° C and then reincubated at 25° C in choline Ringer. 7. Rat and guinea-pig renal cortical slices leached at 0.5° C and reincubated at 25° C swelled in rubidium Ringer and in caesium Ringer. There was no evidence of energy-dependent water or ion extrusion when metabolism was restored after leaching in either of these media. Metabolizing rat slices but not guinea-pig slices swelled faster than slices whose metabolism was inhibited. 8. These results lend no support to the mechano-chemical hypothesis which ascribes cellular volume regulation to a contractile mechanism squeezing isotonic extracellular fluid from the cells. Instead it is suggested that cellular water content in these experiments reflects the balance between the rate of loss of potassium (and chloride) from the cells and the rate of uptake of extracellular cation (and chloride) into the cells — these rates reflecting both the electrochemical potential gradients of the ions and membrane permeability to them. The implications in relation to the hypothesis of ouabain-insensitive cellular volume regulation are discussed.