Anaerobic loss of potassium from frog muscle

✍ Scribed by Dean, R. B.

• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 1940
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 279 KB
• Volume: 15
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0095-9898
• DOI: 10.1002/jcp.1030150207

✦ Synopsis

It is of interest in the light of recent experiments showing the relatively high permeability of muscle to cattiom to discover whether the high potassium content of muscle is maintained by some energy producing system within the fibers. Fenn ('40) reviews the literature and concludes that potassium is not retained in the cells altogether at the expense of oxidative energy. However, there seem to be no experiments directly relating potassium content to oxidation, although Lowry ( '39) reported that free diffusion of potassium from muscles killed by heat is more rapid than from muscles kept in nitr0gen.l The experiments reported here represent an attempt to correlate potassium loss with respiration and glycolysis.

Measurements of the potassium 'content of single isolated frog muscles were made after suspending them for a period in 25 cc. of Ringer containing 0.0048 molar potassium through which bubbled pure oxygen or nitrogen gas. The nitrogen was kindly tested for me by Mr. D. Gilmour and found to be effectively free from oxygen. Sartorius,