Properties of surface and junctional membranes of embryonic cells isolated from blastula stages of Xenopus laevis.

1. Some membrane properties of endoderm and mesoderm cells isolated from late blastula stages of Xenopus laevis have been examined using electrophysiological techniques. 2. Cells were isolated by treatment of whole embryos with Ca-free EDTA containing media, or mechanically by micro-dissection, and cultured in Ca-containing Holtfreter solution (60 mM-NaCl) or Ringer solution (120 mM-NaCl). 3. Membrane potentials lay between -6 and -84 mV; specific membrane resistances ranged from 500 to 29,000 omega cm2; there was no difference between EDTA isolated and mechanically isolated cells. 4. Relative and absolute cation and anion conductances varied from cell to cell. Some cells were anion impermeable; the cation conductance ranged from 35 to 300 mumho/cm2. 5. The resting potential of some cells was largely determined by the concentration gradient and membrane permeability of K ions. In other cells the potential was maintained either by some other ion or by an electrogenic pump. [K]i came to approximately 130 mM in Ringer solution (the value pertaining in the intact embryo) and similar to 60 mM in Holtfreter solution. 6. In most pairs and small clumps of cells ionic current spread from one cell to the next; some single cells and groups of cells were uncoupled from their neighbours. 7. The junctional resistance lay between 10(5) and 10(8) omega; it behaved as a linear resistor in most cell pairs studied. In three pairs the intercellular junction showed rectifying properites. 8. By the late blastula stage of development presumptive endoderm and mesoderm cells form a heterogeneous population with widely varying passive membrane properties. The significance of these findings is discussed in relation to current hypotheses for the formation of spatial patterns during differentiation.