Physiological Salt Solutions

Abstract

During pharmacological experiments on isolated tissues, in order to maintain the normal physiological conditions, artificial salt solutions are freshly prepared and used to suspend the tissue in an organ bath. It helps keep the tissue alive, provides nutrients to the tissue as well as acts as a buffer that mimics the tissue fluid in ionic composition. Alterations in the composition, pH, temperature, aeration of the solution can affect the experimental outcomes. The choice of salt solution used for each experiment is specifically decided on the species of origin of the animal tissue that is experimentally tested. Ringer solution is a polyionic non-alkalinising isotonic crystalloid solution used for amphibian tissues. The variant of Ringer solution called Ringer-Locke is preferred for mammalian isolated heart tissue experiments. Tyrode solution is the isotonic solution preferred for mammalian smooth muscle tissue and in tissue culture. De-Jalon is similar to Ringer-Locke with one-fourth of CaCl₂ and half the amount of glucose, and is commonly used for isolated rat uterus preparation. Krebs-Henseleit (Krebs) and its variants are commonly used for mammalian isolated organ, especially for nerve responses.