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Comparison of nonelectrolyte permeability patterns in several epithelia

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Summary

Reflection coefficients (σ's) have been determined for 13 to 36 non-electrolytes in goldfish gallbladder, bullfrog gallbladder, bullfrog intestine, and guineapig intestine. These results have been compared with the results of similar previous studies in rabbit gallbladder, bullfrog choroid plexus, and guinea-pig gallbladder to determine types of species variation, organ variation, and individual variation. Two principal types of variation were established: (1) Branched solutes are much less permeant than straight-chain analogues in gallbladders of all four species studied, whereas this effect is small in intestine and negligible in choroid plexus. This variation in degree of discrimination against branched solutes is attributed to variation in closeness of packing of membrane lipids. (2) In certain epithelia, small polar solutes are more permeant than expected from their bulk nonpolar-solvent/water partition coefficients and from their size. This feature is very marked in rabbit gallbladder, somewhat marked in guineapig gallbladder and intestine and in bullfrog choroid plexus, apparent mainly just for formamide (the smallest polar nonelectrolyte) in bullfrog intestine, and virtually absent in goldfish and bullfrog gallbladders. Analysis of individual variability in preparations of guinea-pig intestine and rabbit gallbladder from different animals shows covariation in σ's of small polar nonelectrolytes uncorrelated with variation in σ's of other solutes. Small polar solutes, in epithelia where their permeability is as expected from size and from nonpolar-solvent/water partition coefficients, resemble other solutes in having markedly temperature-dependent σ's (high apparent activation energies of permeation), but have nearly temperature-independent σ's (low activation energies, as for diffusion in aqueous solution) in epithelia where their permeability is enhanced. These findings suggest that additional size-restricted permeation pathways by-passing membrane lipid (“pores”) are present in some tissues and smaller or virtually absent in others.

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  1. Physiology Department, University of California Medical Center, 90024, Los Angeles, California

    Dickson J. Hingson & Jared M. Diamond

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  1. Dickson J. Hingson
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Hingson, D.J., Diamond, J.M. Comparison of nonelectrolyte permeability patterns in several epithelia. J. Membrain Biol. 10, 93–135 (1972). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01867849

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