Action of thiocyanate on gastric mucosa in vitro.

Abstract Thiocyanate in addition to its well-known action in inhibiting HCl secretion by the amphibian gastric mucosa has been shown to inhibit 42 K flux and the potential difference change due to K + or Rb + concentration changes in the bathing solutions. Cs + does not substitute for K + in the stomach. Other secretory inhibitors have similar effects. These data may be interpreted by regarding the mucosa as consisting of two parallel circuits residing in the parietal and surface cells, with the parietal cell being responsible for the major fraction of the 42 K movement through the mucosa, which is associated with HCl secretion, and the surface cell possessing the K + perm-selective membrane.