Electrolyte sensitivity of the skin in the toad, Bufo arenarum Hensel.

Experiments on the responsiveness of the skin to solutions of different electrolytes and sucrose have been done in the toad in vivo and in vitro. Brain pithed animals showed a strong flexor "on" response of the hindlimb when the foot was plunged into a saline solution. The delay of this response was strictly proportional to the concentration of the bath from 0.5 to 1 M. The flexor response was invariably elicited by solutions of different salts: NaCl, KCl, Na2SO4, CaCl, MgSO4 and choline chloride, but not by a solution of sucrose with the same osmolarity. On the other hand, a contrast "off" response with strong flexion was also systematically observed when a limb adapted to electrolyte solution was displaced to distilled water. Patches of skin were also exposed to increasing concentrations of NaCl in vitro and the discharges of its afferent nerve were recorded. A clear cut correlation between the osmolarity of the bath and the rate of discharges was observed. The contrast "off" response to distilled water after exposure to NaCl was also observed in the patches of skin, as an increase in nervous discharges. The spontaneous basal firing observed in water, as well as the induced responses by electrolytes, were reversibly blocked by decreasing the temperature of the bath to 0 C. These results indicate that detectors of salinity are present in the skin of the toad. These detectors appear to be sensitive to the ionization but not to the osmolarity of the bath.