The Relationship of Sodium Uptake, Potassium Rejection, and Skin Potential in Isolated Frog Skin

1. Isolated surviving frog skin, when bathed with the same kind of diluted Ringer's solution on both sides, shows a negative correlation between net active salt uptake by the epithelium and spontaneous skin potential. Average values of 0.15 to 0.86 microeq. x hr.(-1) x cm.(-2) were measured and correlated with average skin potentials ranging from 107 to 25 mv. 2. Sodium uptake exceeded chloride uptake by about the same amount, irrespective of the height of the skin potential. 3. The same skins which exhibited a negative correlation between net uptake of sodium chloride and skin potential showed a positive correlation between net potassium rejection from the epithelium and skin potential, for voltages above 30 to 40 mv. In skins of voltages lower than this, potassium ions were taken up rather than rejected. Average values for rejection of +11.8 to -0.8 centi-microeq. x hr.(-1) x cm.(-2) were measured. 4. Net fluid uptake, associated with active uptake of sodium chloride, was small and occurred in the direction of the salt uptake. No dependence of net fluid uptake upon skin potential was observed. 5. Skins of winter frogs, pretreated with a commercial purified ACTH preparation, were less active than their respective controls with regard to uptake of sodium chloride. Rejection of potassium was the same in treated and untreated skins. Posterior pituitary factors, as possible contaminants, did not account for the effect of the ACTH preparation. 6. DOCA, DOC, and cortisone did not alter the normal correlation referred to under (1) and (3). 7. In interpreting the experimental results on theoretical grounds, it is suggested (a) that in normal skin, it is the variation in the electric conductance in skin of chloride ions which essentially, although not exclusively, determines the rate of net uptake of sodium chloride, (b) that a factor in the ACTH preparation used, possibly ACTH itself, may have lowered the electric conductance in skin of sodium ions either truly or apparently, (c) that potassium ions are treated by the skin primarily as passive ions. There is some indication that potassium ions are also actively taken up by the epithelium of skin.