The properties of bovine lens membranes measured by a conventional double‐chamber method

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Abstract
Mounting a bovine lens in a divided chamber produced an asymmetry potential of 4.3 mV (anterior face positive) across the lens and values of 0.48 and 0.60 for P[potential]Na/PK of the anterior and posterior faces, respectively. The half-times for the depolarization of the anterior and posterior face potentials on increasing the external K concentration were 20 and 14 min, respectively. The corresponding change in the totally immersed lens was less than 2 min. The electrical resistance of the anterior surface was significantly smaller than the posterior and both resistances were much smaller than the value from the bovine lens immersed in solution. The K permeability of the anterior surface, measured by 42K efflux experiments, was greater than the value for the posterior surface and both were much higher than the value for the totally immersed lens. The discrepancies between the present double-chamber preparation and the immersed lens experiments are apparently due to the capsule providing a short-circuit pathway between the chamber port and the lens membranes. Since the capsule is thicker at the anterior face, the short circuit there would be greater and may explain previously observed asymmetry properties for the lens.