The membrane action of antidiuretic hormone (ADH) on toad urinary bladder

Radioactive tracer and electrical techniques were used to study the transport of nonelectrolytes and sodium, respectively, across toad urinary bladders in the presence and absence of ADH. The permeability of lipophilic molecules was roughly proportional to bulk phase oil/water partition coefficients both in the presence and absence of hormone; i.e., ADH elicited a general nonselective increase in the permeation of all nine solutes tested. The branched nonelectrolyte, isobutyramide, was less permeable than its straight-chain isomer, n-butyramide, in control tissues. ADH reduced the discrimination between these structural isomers. Hydrophilic solutes permeated more rapidly than expected. In the presence of hormone, there was no change in the permeation of large hydrophilic solutes considered to move via an extracellular pathway, but there was a marked increase in the permeability of water and other small hydrophilic solutes. Collectively, these results suggest that ADH acts to increase the motional freedom or fluidity of lipids in the cell membrane which is considered to be the preferred pathway for the permeation of lipophilic and small hydrophilic molecules. At concentrations of cAMP and ADH which elicit equivalent increments in the shortcircuit current, the effects of these agents on nonelectrolyte transport and membrane electrical conductance are divergent. Such observations suggest that some membrane effects of ADH may not be directly dependent upon cAMP. ADH in the mucosal solution increased the permeability of the toad bladder when the surface charge on the outer surface of the apical membrane was screened with the polyvalent cation, La-3+. These experiments emphasize that interaction of ADH with membranes of toad urinary bladder may account for at least some effects of this hormone.