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Micropuncture investigation of sodium and potassium excretion in rat submaxillary saliva

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Summary

1. Using micropuncture and microcatheterization techniques, samples of fluid were collected from the intercalated ducts, lobar ducts, upper main duct and lower main duct of the rat submaxillary gland, and analyzed for Na, K, and osmolality.

2. Intercalated duct fluid was isotonic, with plasma-like concentrations of both Na and K. The composition of this fluid was unaltered by stimulation of the gland with parasympathomimetic drugs.

3. Lobar duct fluid was nearly isotonic at unstimulated salivary flow rates, but became profoundly hypotonic (114 mOsm/kg) following gland stimulation. Concentration of Na fell from 70–140 mEq/l, in the resting state, to less than 5 mEq/l, after stimulation. Under conditions of maximal stimulation the Na concentration rose slightly to about 40 mEq/l. Concentrations of K were plasma-like at the lowest flow rates, rose to more than 100 mEq/l at flow rates of 1 μl/g min, and then fell to approach a constant value of 32 mEq/l at flow rates in excess of 20 μl/g min. These data suggested that the primary saliva, produced in the acinar-intercalated duct region of the gland, was modified during its passage along the sublobular ducts by processes of Na reabsorption in excess of water, and of K secretion. At low flow rates this modified fluid was thought to have been able to re-equilibrate with plasma distal to the site of sodium and potassium transport; at high rates of secretion this re-equilibration was thought not to occur to any appreciable extent.

4. Samples collected from the main duct showed falls in osmolality and Na concentration, and a rise in K concentration, along the length of the duct. Although demonstrable under stimulated conditions, the action of the main duct on salivary Na and K concentrations only assumed significant proportions at low flow rates; then it was able to reduce Na concentration to less than 5 mEq/l, and to increase K to more than 130 mEq/I. This second locus of electrolyte transport, in the submaxillary main duct, does not seem to be present in the other rat salivary glands.

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C. J. Martin Travelling Research Fellow of the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia; from the Medical Research Department of the Kanematsu Memorial Institute, Sydney Hospital, Sydney, N.S.W., Australia.

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Young, J.A., Schögel, E. Micropuncture investigation of sodium and potassium excretion in rat submaxillary saliva. Pflügers Archiv 291, 85–98 (1966). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00362654

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