ELECTROLYTE CHANGES IN MUSCLE DURING ACTIVITY

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Abstract
One leg of an urethanized rat was stimulated through the sciatic nerve, usually for 1/2 hr., at a frequency of 400 condenser charges per min. Immediately after the close of stimulation, corresponding muscles of the hind legs were sampled and subsequently analyzed for K, Na, chloride, and water. Stimulated muscles showed a loss of K averaging 6.1 m.-eq. per 100 gms. dry weight which was balanced by a gain in Na of 1.3. The Na gain in excess of the K loss was approximately equal to the average gain in chloride, amounting to 2.8 m.-eq. The stimulated muscles . also gained water, half the water being accounted for by the chloride in the tissue spaces, the other half being inside the cells. During a 2-hr. recovery period the muscles regained most of the K lost and lost most of the Na and chloride and water which they had gained. The essential change is therefore an exchange of Na for K during stimulation which is reversed in recovery.

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