When a platinized platinum electrode is polarized at the potential of the standard calomel electrode, the current generated is proportional to the concentration of dissolved hydrogen gas. The effects of physiological variations in oxygen tension, pH, temperature, and ascorbic acid concentration were found to be negligible. Although absolute calibration in vivo is not possible, the rate of tissue hydrogen saturation or desaturation can be measured by needle-shaped electrodes inserted into the tissue. Arterial and venous concentration can be measured with catheter electrodes. Solubility of hydrogen gas in kidney slices was found to be the same as in blood. With the assumption that tissue is in instantaneous diffusion equilibrium with local venous blood with respect to hydrogen, the local blood flow per volume of tissue can be calculated according to the Fick principle from the rate of tissue desaturation when arterial concentration is lowered to zero. The method was tested on dogs in myocardium, kidney, and skeletal muscle. Hydrogen was administered by respiration or by intra-arterial infusion of hydrogen-saturated saline, giving an arterial concentration of 3% to 5% saturation. Tissue desaturation curves were recorded simultaneously from two to three tissue electrodes. Good agreement with flow measured simultaneously with other methods was obtained in myocardium and renal cortex, while the data on skeletal muscle do not permit any definite conclusion. The main virtue of this method lies in the fact that repeated measurements of local blood flow can be obtained without access to arterial or local venous blood. Reliable measurements of regional blood flow were also obtained from continuously recorded venous desaturation curves, which also provide information on the distribution of blood flow.

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A B S T R A C T The relationship between peritubular capillary protein concentration and rate of sodium reabsorption by the rat proximal tubule was examined using free-flow recollection micropuncture techniques. Tubule fluid-to-plasma inulin ratios were measured before, during, and at successive intervals after brief (15-25 sec) intra-aortic injections (at the level of the renal artery) of colloid-free, isoncotic, and hyperoncotic solutions. Arterial hematocrit and protein concentrations were measured simultaneously in these rats. In other rats, total protein concentration of peritubular capillary blood plasma was determined before, during, and after these same infusions with a newly described submicroliter fiber-optic colorimeter.In the 15-25 sec interval necessary to infuse 2 ml of these test solutions, fractional and absolute sodium reabsorption varied directly with peritubular capillary colloid osmotic pressure, declining during infusion of colloid-free solutions, increasing during hyperoncotic infusions, and remaining unchanged during isoncotic infusions.In the subsequent 20-min interval after intra-aortic injection of these test solutions, capillary protein concentration remained at (isoncotic infusions) or returned to (colloid-free and hyperoncotic fluids) control values. Whereas reabsorption after colloid-free solutions returned to base line levels in parallel with the return in capillary protein concentration, after colloid infusions (which resulted in continued expansion of extracellular fluid volume), a progressive decline in reabsorption was observed.Dr. Brenner's present address is Division of Nephrology, Veterans Administration Hospital, San Francisco, Calif. 94121.Received for publication 25 February 1969.These results afford strong evidence that peritubular capillary colloid osmotic pressure is one important determinant of proximal sodium reabsorption. Nevertheless it is apparent that mechanisms other than or in addition to this must be invoked to explain the delayed inhibition of reabsorption that accompanies expansion of extracellular fluid volume by colloid solutions.INTRODUCTION There is considerable evidence to indicate that the transfer of sodium from tubule lumen to peritubular capillary blood is mediated by an active transport process. Many of the proposals concerning the regulation of proximal fluid reabsorption, therefore, have involved mechanisms that either control the availability of sodium at the active transport site, or that influence the sodium pump directly. Thus, the geometry of the tubule lumen

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