Compartments and barriers in the sciatic nerve of the rabbit.

Near constant concentration of various radioactively labelled polar nonelectrolytes were maintained in the blood plasma of renal ligated rabbits. The uptake of [14C]urea, [51Cr]EDTA and [14C]inulin into sciatic nerve was interpreted in terms of a two-compartment model. There was a rapidly equilibrating space representing about 20% of the tissue weight which is almost certainly the interstitial fluid of the epineurium and outer layers of the perineurium. Urea penetrated the blood-nerve barrier at a similar rate to the entry of this compound into brain. Sucrose, chromium-EDTA and sulphate passed into the true interstitial fluid approaching a total volume of distribution of about 36% of the tissue weight at 6-8 h. Since movement of these 3 solutes is severely restricted by the blood-barrier, the blood-nerve barrier in the rabbit must contain channels of greater than 1 nm which are not present in the developed blood-brain barrier. Uptake of [3H]3-O-methylglucose into nerve was examined but the results did not give a conclusive answer to the question of whether there is specific transport of sugars at the blood-nerve barrier. The wet nerve contained (in mmole/kg) sodium 74.3; potassium 42.6 and chloride 48.8. Water was 64.6 ml/100 g. Intracellular electrolyte concentrations were estimated. Approximately 30% of the total sodium content cannot be accounted for as being free in the interstitial fluid at a Gibbs-Donnan distribution with plasma. Analysis of metabolically poisoned nerves which have equilibrated with salt solution in vitro suggests that negatively charged polyelectrolyte molecules retain about 14 mmole of sodium/kg wet normal nerve.