Effect of Ethanol on the Transport of Sodium in Frog Skin

Abstract

ALTHOUGH the neurological effects of alcohol have been widely investigated, the underlying cellular mechanisms by which these effects are produced have not yet been clarified. Gallego¹ and Knutsson² have demonstrated that alcohol produces a depolarization of the membrane in frog sciatic nerve and muscle fibres. However, the alcohol concentrations used by these investigators were near or in the lethal range for the whole animal, and a relatively long time of exposure was required to obtain significant alterations in the polarization of the membranes. Gimeno et al.³ demonstrated that alcohol in much lower concentrations increased the rate of repolarization in the isolated rat atrium. Since repolarization appears to be closely related to the active transport of sodium, these studies suggested that alcohol might affect the latter process. Because of the difficulty in measuring active transport in a dynamic form in nerves and muscle fibres, we have chosen the frog skin as a model system that transports sodium actively.