The permeability of single capillaries to potassium ions

This paper reports a description of methods for determining the diffusional permeability to potassium ions of single capillaries in the frog mesentery. By means of micropipettes, injections or infusions were delivered into a single capillary. The subsequent concentration variations in and about the capillary were followed with K(+)-sensitive microelectrodes. A theoretical analysis is provided which give a quantitative frame of reference for evaluating the observed time-concentration curves in terms of capillary permeability. The advantage of single capillary studies is that the surface area through which diffusion occurs is known as is the concentration difference across the capillary membrane. Three different techniques are: (a) the "single injection" method which represents an application of the indicator diffusion technique where a high-K(+) bolus is injected into a single capillary; (b) the "sack" method which determines the rate of K(+) disappearance from within and immediately outside an occluded capillary segment, after a brief increase in intracapillary K(+) concentration; and (c) the "interstitial diffusion" method which records time and spatial distribution of K(+) in the interstitial space after a step-change in intracapillary K(+) concentration. The methods gave an average potassium permeability of the capillary membrane of 67x10(-5) cm s(-1) (SD: 23, n=26) at room temperature. These figures are clearly higher than those previously reported in mammalian capillary studies using whole-organ techniques. In terms of the pappenheimer pore model, this estimate of capillary permeability is consistent with the behavior of a membrane with a thickness of 1.0 mum which possesses equivalent pores with a radius of 110 A, a fractional pore area of 0.3 percent, and a pore density of 8 mum(-2).