Phosphate efflux and oxygen consumption in small non-myelinated nerve fibres at rest and during activity

1. The oxygen consumption and the movements of labelled phosphate were measured in garfish olfactory nerve at rest and during activity. 2. In solutions with 2·5 mM-K and 0·2 mM-phosphate the resting oxygen consumption was 0·206 m-mole/kg.min; activity at 2 sec-1 produced an extra oxygen consumption of 2·46 μmole/kg.impulse. The extra oxygen consumption declined exponentially with a time constant of 2·62 min at 22-26 °C. 3. The phosphate efflux, measured simultaneously, had a resting efflux rate constant of 1·24 × 10-3 min-1; activity at 2 sec-1 produced an extra fractional loss of 9·38 × 10-6 impulse-1. The increase in phosphate efflux followed almost the same time course as the increase in oxygen consumption. 4. Increasing the frequency of stimulation from 2 sec-1 to 3 or 5 sec-1 decreased both the extra oxygen consumption and the extra fractional loss of phosphate. When the frequency was decreased to 0·5 or 1 sec-1 the extra oxygen consumption per impulse increased, while the extra phosphate liberation was lowered. 5. Changing the phosphate concentration did not much affect the extra oxygen consumption; on the other hand, lowering or increasing the phosphate from the standard 0.2 mM decreased both the resting and the stimulated phosphate efflux. 6. Lowering the K from the standard 2·5 mM did not affect the extra oxygen consumption, but increased both the resting and the extra loss of phosphate. At higher K concentrations the extra oxygen consumption and the extra fractional loss of phosphate decreased without much change in the resting phosphate efflux. 7. Application of 1-20 μM-strophanthidin produced a transient decrease in the resting phosphate efflux without much change in resting oxygen consumption. With 10 or 20 μM-strophanthidin the extra fractional loss of phosphate and the extra oxygen consumption were both lowered in approximately the same proportions. 8. The findings are consistent with the hypothesis that the increase in intracellular inorganic phosphate that results from increased break-down of ATP after activity, is the main cause for the increased phosphate efflux. A fraction of the increase in intracellular phosphate only appears to be liberated to the outside, the value of the fraction depending on the resting phosphate efflux before activity. 9. The initial increase in intracellular inorganic phosphate after an impulse, estimated from the oxygen consumption or the phosphate fluxes, appears to be about 12-19 μmole/kg nerve, remarkably close to the value known from chemical analysis.