Oxygen consumption and phosphate efflux in mammalian non-myelinated nerve fibres

1. A comparison has been made between the efflux of labelled phosphate from the non-myelinated fibres of the desheathed rabbit vagus nerve at 37 degrees C and the corresponding O2 consumption at rest and during activity, and during a variety of experimental interventions. 2. The resting rate constant of phosphate efflux was 2.61 X 10(-3) min-1: electrical stimulation (10 sec-1, 3 min) produced an extra fractional loss of 6.75 X 10(-6) impulse-1. 3. The corresponding resting O2 consumption was 0.484 m-mole x kg-1 impulse-1. 4. Ouabain (100 microM) produced a sustained depression (of about 40%) of the resting O2 consumption, accompanied by a transient fall (of about 14%) in the rate constant of phosphate efflux. 5. Na salicylate (10 mM) or Na arsenate (1 mM) produced a much larger increase in phosphate efflux than in resting O2 consumption. 6. Changing the external phosphate concentration (between 0.02 and 2 mM), addition of acetylcholine (1.7 mM), and addition of lanthanum (20 microM)--all of which are known to affect markedly the phosphate efflux in rabbit non-myelinated fibres--had little or no effect on the resting O2 consumption or, where tested, on the extra O2 consumption with electrical stimulation. 7. Changing the external Ca concentration (between 0.09 and 9 mM) had only minor effects on the O2 consumption (resting and stimulated) and on the rate constant of resting phosphate efflux. 8. It is concluded that although changes in metabolism of the nerve produce changes in the phosphate efflux expected on the basis of the concomitant changes in the internal concentration of inorganic phosphate, the converse is not true; and increases and decreases in the rate constant of phosphate efflux do not necessarily signal the corresponding metabolic changes.