Cellular mechanisms of ion transport associated with osmotic gradients in rat small intestine.

1. The electrical potential difference, short-circuit current, tissue conductance, and fluxes of sodium and chloride were measured in rat small intestine in an in vitro chamber preparation in the presence and absence of 100 mM-mannitol on either the mucosal or serosal surface. 2. Mucosal mannitol generally decreased potential difference, short-circuit current, and tissue conductance while serosal mannitol increased the electrical variables. 3. Mucosal mannitol decreased unidirectional movement of sodium and chloride but did not change the net transport of these ions. The change in short-circuit current was therefore ascribed to changes in fluxes of ions other than sodium and chloride. 4. Serosal mannitol increased the unidirectional fluxes of sodium, but not the new transport of this ion. The transport of chloride increased only in the serosal to mucosal direction yielding a net secretion of chloride equal to the change in short-circuit current. 5. The changes in potential difference and short-circuit current caused by mucosal mannitol were dependent on the presence of sodium. The changes due to serosal mannitol were dependent on both sodium and chloride. 6. Changes in undirectional transport of ions, small non-electrolytes, and water due to an osmotic gradient were attributed to changes in the dimension of the lateral intercellular spaces observed in earlier studies. 7. No evidence suggesting that the electrical changes due to the mannitol gradients could be attributed to diffusive or convective flows of fluid, but instead the changes were ascribed to perturbations in the cellular transport mechanisms.