The relation of sodium and potassium ion transport to the respiration and adenine nucleotide content of liver slices treated with inhibitors of respiration.

1. The dependence of the net transport of Na(+) and K(+) by rat liver on the respiration has been determined by incubating slices in the presence of varying concentrations of respiratory inhibitors. 2. Neither the rate of net transport nor the total amount of each ion transported was inhibited unless the rate of endogenous respiration was decreased below a critical value of about 330mmol of O(2)/h per kg of protein (i.e. 50% of the total endogenous respiration). 3. The uninhibited rate of respiration could be varied over a twofold range (380-770mmol of O(2)/h per kg of protein) by the use of different substrates, but the critical value for the onset of transport inhibition was quite constant (290-360mmol/h per kg of protein) under these different conditions. 4. Slices incubated at 38 degrees C without inhibitors showed an increase of their ATP content and the concentration ratio ATP/ADP. The final ATP content and concentration ratio, ATP/ADP, of slices treated with different concentrations of inhibitors were closely related to the rate of respiration. 5. The increased ATP content of the control slices during incubation was equal to the increase of total adenine nucleotides. At increasing degrees of respiratory inhibition the relative contributions of ADP and AMP to the total adenine nucleotide content increased. 6. The critical rate of respiration for the onset of inhibition of ion transport and the corresponding contents of adenine nucleotides provide estimates of the maximal values of certain parameters of energy metabolism required for the support of alkali-cation transport in the liver slices.