Effect of Magnesium on Passive Fluxes of Lithium in the Human Erythrocyte

Abstract

Extracellular Mg2+ is known to inhibit the passive Na+ and K+ fluxes in the human erythrocyte. In this study the effect of extracellular Mg2+ on Li+ efflux was measured in erythrocytes from 29 normotensive and essential hypertensive subjects. Magnesium produced a variable inhibition of between 0 and 47% in Li+ efflux in different subjects and this effect was unrelated to initial cell Li+, blood pressure or to an action on the co- or counter-transport pathways for this cation. A positive correlation was observed between the magnitude of the passive Li+ efflux and its inhibition (0 to 47%) by Mg2+ ions. Thus Mg2+ has an inhibitory effect on passive Li+ permeability which is unrelated to essential hypertension.

Insulin sensitivity, sodium-lithium countertransport and platelet free calcium concentrations in normotensive men with a family history of hypertension

“…43 If the influence of the sodium-potassium co-transporter differs between Controls and Relatives, this might have prevented a difference in NaLiCT being found between the groups. The fact that magnesium also seems to interfere with the membrane effects of insulin 44 is less likely to have affected the result, since the insulin level was the same in both groups.…”