A theoretical study on the sucrose gap technique as applied to multicellular muscle preparations. I. Saline-sucrose interdiffusion.

Voltage-clamp analysis of membrane currents in multicellular muscle preparations by means of the sucrose gap method is complicated by diffusion of saline and sucrose in the interstitial fluid spaces. This paper is the first part of a theoretical study made to analyze electrical events related to this diffusion process. Concentration profiles of ions and sucrose (both axial and radial) were computed by solving diffusion equations with boundary conditions appropriate for the different types of preparations and experimental arrangements used. In addition to steady-state solutions, analytical expressions were derived that describe the time-course with which concentration profiles become established after a stepwise change of the solute concentration in one of the compartments of the sucrose gap apparatus. The model accounts for the presence of an endothelial surface layer, or endocardium, which acts as an external diffusion barrier and is important in determining concentration gradients of solutes within heart cell preparations. Results of numerical computations dealing with several cases of experimental interest are presented.