Prostaglandin-dependent osmotic water permeability of the frog and trout urinary bladder

Abstract

Washout of autacoids from serosal Ringer solution, using a repeated change of the solution of the frog and trout urinary bladder, was accompanied by a pronounced rise in the osmotic water permeability: the water transport in the frog rose from 0.05±0.02 to 1.21±0.26 μl min −1·cm −2, in the trout, from 0.041±0.011 to 0.26±0.034 μl min −1·cm −2. Such an increase in the osmotic water permeability in the trout and frog urinary bladder occurred in the background of a decrease in the prostaglandin E 2 concentration in the serosal Ringer solution. This permeability increase was accompanied by the formation of aggregates of intramembranous particles in the apical plasma membrane of the trout and frog urinary bladder. A decrease in the osmotic water permeability was achieved by the addition to the serosal Ringer solution of 10 −8 M prostaglandin. Experiments on the frog urinary bladder have shown that prostaglandins E 1, I 2 and F 2 α also decrease the osmotic water permeability. Vasotocin increased the osmotic water permeability in the frog urinary bladder but did not affect the osmotic water permeability of the trout urinary bladder. The data obtained indicates a role of the endogenous prostaglandin production in maintaining the low osmotic water permeability in the frog and trout urinary bladder. A suggestion is made that in the vertebrate evolution, colonisation of the fresh-water was connected with the maintenance of the low osmotic water permeability via participation of prostaglandins, whereas the vasotocin hydroosmotic effect developed in the vertebrate evolution later and provided for the possibility of the water absorption, osmotic homeostasis and animal migration from fresh-water to the land.