Bath osmolality: effect on water permeability of epithelial tissue.

When hyperosmotic gradients from 100 to 500 mosM are used to produce a water flux, the water permeability of live and potassium cyanide (KCN)-poisoned frog skin decreases with increasing osmotic gradients. In addition, as the total bath osmolality (corium + epithelial) increases there is a reduction in tissue water. Examination of the tissue cellular and extracellular compartments shows that cell shrinkage caused by the increasing hyperosmolality of the bathing medium correlates with the decrease in osmotic permeability. When the bath osmolality is held constant and cell volume decreases, there is a decrease in the water permeability. High potassium in the external bathing medium causes cell swelling that is associated with an increase in water permeability. These data support the hypothesis that a number of conditions known to affect the water permeability of frog skin do so partly or wholly as a result of a change in the cell volume, which either directly or indirectly alters the osmotic permeability of a rate limiting barrier, possibly the cell membrane.