Potassium transport in isolated cerebral microvessels from the rat

Microvessels have been prepared from the gray matter of a rat brain by a technique involving density gradient centrifugation. A suspension of these vessels, largely capillaries, was incubated in vitro in order to investigate K transport. The flux of K (as 86Rb) into and out of endothelial cells was estimated. Potassium influx was sensitive to temperature and pH of the medium, and was markedly inhibited by 1 mM ouabain (45%). Ouabain did not inhibit K efflux, as anticipated, when Na-K pumps are mainly located on the abluminal plasma membrane of the endothelial cell. The ouabain-sensitive K influx was measured at varying external concentrations of K. The Km of ouabain-sensitive K influx was 2.95 mM, which is similar to the affinity of the transport carrier of K, found in in vivo studies of K efflux from brain to the blood system. Both 1 mM furosemide and 5 mM barium chloride inhibited part of the ouabain-insensitive K influx. Potassium efflux was not influenced by furosemide, but was somewhat reduced by barium chloride. Noradrenalin (10(-3) mM) and histamine (0.1 mM) did not significantly affect the influx of K.