Effects of membrane potential changes on electrical cell-to-cell coupling in proximal tubule.

Single proximal convoluted tubules (PCT) of Necturus kidney were impaled with three microelectrodes in the sequence M1, M2, M3. M1 was used for injecting short DC current pulses, M2 for recording peritubular membrane potential, V, and M3 for injecting longer DC current steps and thereby shifting V to a new baseline potential, V'. We define the p.d. changes at M2 due to M1-induced pulses as delta V and delta V' (for baselines V and V', respectively). Our objective was to test whether delta V' was equal to delta V. The main finding is that when V depolarized by 10 to 80 mV delta V'/delta V remained close to 1.00. Care was taken to ensure that this apparent stability of the pulse ratio was not due to opposite changes of apical and basolateral membrane conductances (g(A) and g(B) respectively), to changes of the sum g(A)+g(B) compensated for by changes of the cell-to-cell junctional conductance, g(j), or to a distortion of the delta V'/delta V ratio as a function of interelectrode distance, masking voltage-dependent changes of cell membrane conductances. Hyperpolarization of V produced gradual electrical uncoupling between cells as V' became increasingly negative, by a mechanism yet to be determined.