Epithelial Fluid Transport is Due to Electro-osmosis (80%), Plus Osmosis (20%)

FISCHBARG, JORGE; HERNANDEZ, JULIO A.; RUBASHKIN, ANDREY A.; ISEROVICH, PAVEL; CACACE, VERONICA I.; KUSNIER, CARLOS F.

JOURNAL OF MEMBRANE BIOLOGY

SPRINGER

Año: 2017 vol. 250 p. 327 - 333

0022-2631

Epithelial fluid transport, an important physiological process shrouded in a long-standing enigma, may finally be moving closer to a solution. We propose that, for the corneal endothelium, relative proportions for the driving forces for fluid transport are 80% of paracellular electro-osmosis, and 20% classical transcellular osmosis. These operate in a cyclical process with a period of 9.2 s, which is dictated by the decrease and exhaustion of cellular Na+. Paracellular electro-osmosis is sketched here, and partially discussed as much as the subject still allows; transcellular osmosis is presented at length.