Normal and anomalous potential responses due to K+ changes in bullfrog antrum.

The effect of changing the K+ concentration in the bathing media was studied in the bullfrog antrum. Usually increasing K+ on the nutrient side in standard Cl- -containing and Cl- -free solutions decreased the transmucosal potential difference (nutrient became more negative) - a normal effect. Similar results were obtained on the secretory side. Moreover, for K+ changes on the nutrient side in Cl- media, a plot of magnitude of delta V vs. log [K+] was linear for [K+] greater than 20 mM with slope of 27 mV per 10-fold change in [K+]. However, after bathing the mucosa in Cl- media with zero K+ for about 20 min, elevating the nutrient [K+] to 4 mM increased the potential difference (V) by 4.8 mV in 5 min and repeating the same sequence increased V by 6.9 mV in 5 min - both anomalous effects. Beyond 20 mM K+ the response was normal. In SO2-4 media, an anomalous potential difference of about 1 mV was obtained for changes from 0 to 3 or 6 mM nutrient K+. Ouabain (1 X 10(-3) M) in the nutrient solution abolished the anomalous response in Cl- and SO2-4 media. The normal response is attributed to passive, conductance pathways and the anomalous response because of the effect of ouabain, to a (Na+ + K+)-ATPase pump on the nutrient-facing membrane in which more Na+ than K+ ions are transported per cycle.