Effects of certain steroids on bioelectric current of isolated frog skin

¹ Radioisotope Service, Veterans Administration Hospital; Biophysics Laboratory, Tulane University; Physiology Department, Tulane University School of Medicine; and Ochsner Clinic, New Orleans, Louisiana

2-methyl-9 -fluorohydrocortisone and hydrocortisone sodium succinate increase both the rate and duration and, therefore, total quantity of ion transported in the isolated short-circuited frog skin measured over a 24-hour period. The ion transport is directly related to the bioelectric current generated, and based on Ussing's work, is assumed identical to the net flux of sodium ion. These steroids may make available transport energy that is not available to the untreated half of the skin by rerouting enzymatic pathways or by lowering the resistance of the membrane to ion transport and thereby more efficiently utilizing the energy available for transport.