Convective paracellular solute flux. A source of ion-ion interaction in the epithelial transport equations

An electrolyte model of an epithelium (a cell and a tight junction in parallel, both in series with a lateral interspace basement membrane) is analyzed using the formalism of nonequilibrium thermodynamics. It is shown that if the parallel structures are heteroporous (i.e., reflection coefficients for two ion species differ between the components), then a cross-term will appear in the overall transport equations of the epithelium. Formally, this cross-term represents an ion-ion interaction. With respect to the rat proximal tubule, data indicating epithelial ionic reflection coefficients less than unity, together with the assumption of no transcellular solvent drag, imply the presence of convective paracellular solute flux. This means that a model applicable to a heteroporous structure must be used to represent the tubule, and, in particular, the cross-terms for ion-ion interaction must also be evaluated in permeability determinations. A series of calculations is presented that permits the estimation of the Na-Cl interaction for rat proximal tubule from available experimental data. One consequence of tubule heteroporosity is that an electrical potential may be substantially less effective than an equivalent concentration gradient in driving reabsorptive ion fluxes.