Ion movements in seminal vesicle mucosa

Abstract

The testicular hormone, testosterone, is required by the seminal vesicles for the production of fructose, citric acid and other characteristic chemical constituents of the vesicular secretion (see Mann, 1954), and also appears to influence the distribution of water in the gland. Thus, after the injection of testosterone propionate in castrated rats the extracellular water of the seminal vesicle tissue was reduced about threefold, almost to the value of 138 % found in normal, i.e. non-castrated, rats (Rudolph & Starnes, 1954a). The rate of respiration of the tissue from rats treated in this way was also affected; it increased about 30 %, again to the level characteristic of the vesicles from normal rats (Rudolph & Starnes, 1954b).The seminal vesicles of the guinea-pig are different anatomically from those of rats and are shaped in the form of a wide duct which can be opened and the mucosa then conveniently separated as a sheet of tissue. Levey & Szego (1955 a) used such pieces of tissue in a comparison of the metabolism of seminal vesicle epithelia from normal and castrated guinea-pigs, and found that in the latter case the respiration was only a half that of normal tissue or of tissue from castrated animals which had been injected with testosterone. In view of the effects of castration and of testosterone on the water content and respiration of seminal vesicles, a study has been made of the relation between metabolism and the movements of water and ions in the seminal vesicle mucosa of the normal guinea-pig. The concentrations of sodium, potassium and chloride in the tissue, after incubation under various conditions, have been measured and the conclusion has been reached that the tissue can maintain ionic concentration gradients so long as either respiratory or glycolytic energy is available.

Active chloride secretion by in vitro guinea‐pig seminal vesicle and its possible relation to vesicular function in vivo.

“…Thus, the sum of the Na and K concentrations does not differ from that of C1. Similar values for guinea-pig vesicular fluid were reported by Breuer & Whittam (1957). In view of the fact that the plasma concentration of Na, Cl and K in the guinea-pig are approximately 130, 100 and 6 mm, respectively, the steady-state concentrations of these ions in the vesicular fluid do not conform with a passive (or equilibrium) distribution calculated from the ION TRANSPORT BY SEMINAL VESICLE 20 Nernst equation.…”

“…The concentrations of Na, K and Cl in guinea-pig seminal vesicular fluid are much lower than those in either the vesicular tissue or the plasma (Breuer & Whittam, 1957). However, although it has been shown that the epithelial cells of guinea-pig seminal vesicle can maintain steady-state intracellular ion concentrations in vitro under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions providing suitable substrates are present in the incubation medium (Breuer & Whittam, 1957;Whittam & Breuer, 1959), the transepithelial transport processes responsible for the elaboration of the vesicular fluid have not been investigated.…”

Sodium and potassium movements in kidney cortex slices from newborn animals

“…Other tissues and cells which possess the ability to transport cations actively both aerobically and anaerobically are frog skin (Leaf & Renshaw, 1957), duck erythrocytes (Tosteson & Robertson, 1956), ascites tumour cells (Maizels, Remington & Truscoe, 1958) and guinea-pig seminal vesicle mucosa (Breuer & Whittam, 1957). A metabolic feature shared by tumour cells and kidney cortex slices of the new-born rabbit and rat is a rate of aerobic glycolysis higher than that of tissues such as liver and kidney cortex of adult animals (see the discussion by Warburg, 1956).…”

The secretion of sodium and uptake of potassium by isolated uterine segments made sodium‐rich

“…$ 1 g of water-soluble conjugated oestrogens is equivalent in potency to 0*38 g of sodium oestrone sulphate. red cells (Kahn & Cohen, 1957;Tosteson & Johnson, 1957 a, b) and glutamate had a similar effect on the glandular tissues of the guinea-pig seminal vesicle (Breuer & Whittam, 1957). Physostigmine has been considered to act as both a stabilizer and labilizer of resting membrane permeabilities (see Shanes, 1958).…”