METABOLISM OF TISSUE CULTURES : III. A METHOD FOR MEASURING THE PERMEABILITY OF TISSUE CELLS TO SOLUTES.

By using radioactive isotopes in tissue cultures, the rate of permeation of substances into cells can be measured independently of concurrent metabolic reactions of these substances. Techniques of obtaining and analyzing data are described. Examples are given using radioactive potassium and phosphorus. Using cultures of chick embryo muscle, turnover time for cell potassium is 6 hours, and for cell inorganic phosphate is 7 hours in the examples cited. Permeability rates, based on estimates of the cell surface involved and expressed as millimoles per cm.(2) per hour, are of the order of magnitude of 10(-6) for potassium and of 10(-7) for phosphate.