Potassium and Sodium Balance in Mammalian Red Cells

The permeability of kidney cortex to chloride

“…Further work using sodium-free media may indicate the extent to which the distribution of chloride and of potassium depends on the extrusion of sodium from the cells. Active mechanisms for the accumulation of potassium have already been postulated for the red blood cell (Ponder 1950;Harris & Maizels, 1952;Solomon, 1952;Bernstein, 1954), the yeast cell (Conway, Ryan & Carton, 1954), algae (Scott & Hayward, 1954) and nerve (Shanes, 1951;Hodgkin & Keynes, 1955). The kidney cortex slices used in these experiments were collections of cells of different types, consisting mainly of those of the convoluted portions of the proximal and distal tubules; it is not possible therefore to express the results as concentrations in one kind of cell.…”

The stability of the potassium concentration in the erythrocytes of individual sheep compared with the variability between different sheep

“…3 Harris, McDonald & Williams (1951), who were all working with Merino sheep, are best represented by the 70-127 line which was constructed from our own Scottish Blackface results. It seems possible, therefore, that the 70-127 line, rather than the 116-110 line, may be characteristic of the Merino breed, and that the higher mean potassium concentration of the red blood cell found by Bernstein (1954) may be the result of the inclusion of a few KeA type animals in his mean value. The fact that Bernstein (personal communication) found the concentration of potassium and sodium in the erthrocytes of sheep to be more variable than in other animals supports this possibility.…”

“…Karvonen & Leppanen (1952), using blood from Finnish and British breeds (the latter blood samples were collected in Britain and sent to Finland), again obtained a result suggesting Key for the Finnish blood, but the British breeds gave values for potassium and sodium which suggested Ke,B and Keoc. Bernstein (1954) graph constructed from the data of Kerr (1937). al.…”

A role for chloride in the autoxidation of hemoglobin under conditions similar to those in erythrocytes

“…In addition there now seems little doubt that superoxide is present in erythrocytes in which normal autoxidation is occurring [7,8]. Chloride is well known [9] as the principal anionic constituent of both blood plasma ( "" 0.12 M) and erythrocytes ( "-" 0.08 M) and our preliminary measurements [5] seemed to indicate that despite its low nucleophilicity chloride can act to slowly displace superoxide from HbO2. It seems then not unreasonable to suppose that chloride ion plays an important role in the normal autoxidation of hemoglobin under physiological conditions.…”