ACUTE EFFECTS OF ETHANOL ON TISSUE ELECTROLYTES IN THE RAT

Abstract

Groups of Wistar albino rats of both sexes received either gavage with low or high doses of water, ethanol in water, or no treatment. Ninety minutes later they were decapitated and exsanguinated, and samples of brain, ventricular myocardium, renal cortex, liver, skeletal muscle, whole blood, and plasma were obtained. These were analyzed for water, chloride, sodium, and potassium. Corrections were made for residual blood in the heart, kidney, and liver samples. On the basis of an assumed extracellular location of chloride, the intracellular content of water and the concentrations of sodium and potassium in the intracellular water (i.e., chloride-free space) were calculated.All treatments produced a fall in the water content of the blood and a rise in potassium, which were taken as evidence of hemoconcentration. The plasma showed a fall in sodium, which was most marked following the high dose of water and was interpreted as a dilution effect; and a fall in potassium after ethanol, which is not yet explained. Most tissues tended to show a rise in calculated intracellular water and sodium and a fall in intracellular potassium after ethanol, especially after the high dose (4 g/kg). These changes, although statistically significant only in liver and kidney, are compatible with data reported elsewhere which show that ethanol inhibits the active transport of cations across cell membranes.