Luminal perfusion of isolated gastric glands

We have extended to rabbit gastric glands the technique for perfusing single isolated renal tubules. We isolated glands by hand dissection and used concentric glass pipettes to hold them and perfuse their lumina. Parietal cells (PCs), which tended to be located toward the gland opening, were identified by their pyramidal shape, large size, and autofluorescence. Chief cells (CCs) were identified by their round shape and smaller size. In some experiments, we perfused the lumen with hydroxypyrenetrisulfonate, a pH-sensitive fluorophore, at pH 7.4 and used digital image processing to monitor luminal pH (pH1). Solutions were buffered with N-2-hydroxyethylpiperazine-N'-2-ethanesulfonic acid to pH 7.4 at 37 degrees C. With fast perfusion, we found no evidence of decreased pH1, even with stimulation by 10 microM carbachol. With slow perfusion, pH1 often fell below the dye's sensitive range (pH < 5), especially at low perfusate buffering power. In other experiments, we loaded cells with the pH-sensitive dye 2',7'-bis(2-carboxyethyl)-5(6)-carboxyfluorescein and monitored intracellular pH (pHi) in multiple individual PCs and CCs in a single gland. Mean pHi was 7.21 +/- 0.02 (n = 136 cells) for PCs and 7.27 +/- 0.03 (n = 103) for CCs. To examine the response to decreased pH1 and basolateral pH (pHb), we lowered pHb to 6.4 or lowered pH1 to 3.4 or 1.4. Lowering pHb to 6.4 for approximately 1 min caused pHi to fall reversibly by 0.39 +/- 0.05 (n = 53) in PCs and 0.58 +/- 0.03 (n = 50) in CCs. Lowering pH1 to 3.4 or 1.4 caused no significant pHi changes in PCs (n = 38 and 82) or in CCs (n = 44 and 77). Carbachol did not affect the response to changes in pH1 or pHb. We conclude that the apical surfaces of PCs and CCs are unusually resistant to extreme pH gradients.