Extracellular space determination in rat small intestine by using markers of different molecular weights.

The apparent extracellular space (ECS) of rat jejunum, everted and cannulated "in vitro", has been measured by using extracellular markers of different molecular weights. The markers used were two polyethyleneglycols, 14C and 3H labelled (14C-PEG MW 4000 and 3H-PEG MW 900) and 3H-sucrose. The ECSs for the mucosal and serosal sides have been separately determined throughout the time course, and it has been found that the two spaces are identical when PEG 4000 was used but the serosal ECS is almost the double when using PEG 900. The serosal ECS determined with sucrose is four times as big as the mucosal ECS. It seems reasonable to conclude that the best marker for the measure of total apparent ECS is sucrose, placed in the serosal compartment, taking into account that the mucosal ECS is four times smaller than the serosal one. All the markers used reach equilibrium with ECS, more rapidly in the mucosal than in the serosal ECS. Finally, by comparing cell water and cell Na concentrations, one observes that there is a statistical difference between the results obtained by using PEG 4000 as an extracellular marker and those obtained with sucrose.