The sodium transport pool in toad urinary bladder epithelial cells.

The sodium which equilibrates with 24-Na in epithelial cells of toad urinary bladders has been determined. With sodium Ringer's bathing both mucosal and serosal surfaces, 24-Na in the mucosal medium equilibrated with about 35 mmoles cellular sodium/kg cellular dry weight, representing about 20% of the total cellular sodium determined flame photometrically; 24-Na in the serosal medium equilibrated with 120 mmoles cellular sodium/kg cellular dry weight, about 80% of the total cellular sodium. With 24-Na in both media all cellular sodium was labeled within 30 min. In the absence of serosal sodium, total cellular sodium and that sodium which equilibrated with mucosal 24-Na in sodium Ringer's were both similar to the cellular sodium of mucosal origin which had been determined in epithelial cells exposed on both surfaces to sodium Ringer's. Sodium-free mucosal medium, and sodium Ringer's containing amiloride 10-4 or 10-3 M in the mucosal medium, both virtually completely inhibited transepithelial sodium transport. But, whereas the cellular sodium of mucosal origin fell to only 2 mmoles/kg cellular dry weight with sodium-free mucosal medium, an appreciable labeling of cellular sodium was found whether amiloride was present before, or only after, exposure of tissue to mucosal 24-Na. Rapid washing of the mucosal surface of hemibladders just before removal of epithelial cells for analysis removed most of this sodium labeled in the presence of amiloride, suggesting that the cellular sodium of mucosal origin consists of at least two fractions with only about two-thirds truly intracellular. The sodium transport pool measured directly in these experiments is appreciably smaller than any previous estimates of pool size all of which have been obtained by indirect techniques involving use of whole hemibladders rather than epithelial cells alone.