Membrane potentials and intracellular Cl- activity of toad skin epithelium in relation to activation and deactivation of the transepithelial Cl- conductance.

The potential dependence of unidirectional 36Cl fluxes through toad skin revealed activation of a conductive pathway in the physiological region of transepithelial potentials. Activation of the conductance was dependent on the presence of Cl or Br in the external bathing solution, but was independent of whether the external bath was NaCl-Ringer's, NaCl-Ringer's with amiloride, KCl-Ringer's or choline Cl-Ringer's. To partition the routes of the conductive Cl- ion flow, we measured in the isolated epithelium with double-barrelled microelectrodes apical membrane potential. Va, and intracellular Cl- activity, acCl, of the principal cells identified by differential interference contrast microscopy. Under short-circuit conditions, Isc = 27.0 +/- 2.0 microA/cm2, with NaCl-Ringer's bathing both surfaces, Va was -67.9 +/- 3.8 mV (mean +/- SE, n = 24, six preparations) and acCl was 18.0 +/- 0.9 mM in skins from animals adapted to distilled water. Both Va and acCl were found to be positively correlated with Isc (r = 0.66 and r = 0.70, respectively). In eight epithelia from animals adapted to dry milieu/tap water Va and acCl were measured with KCl Ringer's on the outside during activation and deactivation of the transepithelial Cl- conductance (GCl) by voltage clamping the transepithelial potential (V) at 40 mV (mucosa positive) and -100 mV. At V = 40 mV; i.e. when GCl was deactivated, Va was -70.1 +/- 5.0 mV (n = 15, eight preparations) and acCl was 40.0 +/- 3.8 mM. The fractional apical membrane resistance (fRa) was 0.69 +/- 0.03. Clamping to V = -100 mV led to an instantaneous change of Va to 31.3 +/- 5.6 mV (cell interior positive with respect to the mucosal bath), whereas neither acCl nor fRa changed significantly within a 2 to 5-min period during which GCl increased by 1.19 +/- 0.10 mS/cm2. When V was stepped back to 40 mV, Va instantaneously shifted to -67.8 +/- 3.9 mV while acCl and fRa remained constant during deactivation of GCl. Similar results were obtained in epithelia impaled from the serosal side. In 12 skins from animals adapted to either tap water or distilled water the density of mitochondria-rich (DMRC) cells was estimated and correlated with the Cl current (ICl through the fully activated (V = -100 mV) Cl conductance). A highly significant correlation ws revealed (r = -0.96) with a slope of -2.6 nA/m.r. (mitochondria-rich cell and an I-axis intercept not significantly different from zero.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)