Correlation between tissue pH, cellular transmembrane potentials, and cellular energy metabolism during shock and during ischemia.

The relevance of two direct techniques for monitoring of cellular function during tissue hypoxia has been evaluated. Tissue pH and cellular transmembrane potentials were registered in canine skeletal muscle during intestinal exteriorization shock and during prolonged local tourniquet ischemia. The obtained pH and transmembrane potential changes were correlated to simultaneous changes in high-energy phosphagen (ATP + CP) and lactate levels in skeletal muscle. In control dogs no significant changes in either of the studied variables occurred. Intestinal exteriorization shock as well as local tourniquet ischemia resulted in a gradual increase in tissue lactate and a concomitant decrease in tissue pH and transmembrane potentials. In both experimental situations there was a close correlation between the transmembrane potential reduction and the tissue lactate increase. Tissue pH registrations, on the other hand, did not similarly reveal the full extent of the tissue lactate increase under the two experimental conditions. Possible reasons for this discrepancy are discussed. On the basis of the present results it may therefore be concluded that the transmembrane potential seems to be a better variable for revealing the full extent of cellular metabolic deterioration during various situations with tissue hypoxia.