Rates of ion movement from plasma to endolymph in the dogfish.

The rates of movement of Na+, Rb+, Cl- and HCO3- from plasma to endolymph were studied in the elasmobranch fish, Squalus acanthias, by use of the appropriate isotopes. Rb+ was used as a marker for K+. The half-times to equilibrium for Na+, Rb+ and Cl- were about 100 hours; for HCO3- it was 6 hours. The equilibrium ratios, endolymph/plasma, are Na+ 0.87, K+ 26, Cl- 1.37, HCO3- 1.47. Carbonic anhydrase inhibition decreased the rate of HCO3- accumulation, suggesting that the process is actually the formation of endolymphatic HCO3- from plasma or tissue CO2. Increase in plasma pCO2 elevates endolymph HCO3- concentration. The secretory tissue contains carbonic anhydrase and Na-K-ATPase. These and other data suggest that a dominant feature of endolymph chemistry may be HCO3- formation linked in some fashion with K+ transport, through rates catalyzed by these two enzymes.