AJP - Cell Physiology, Vol 254, Issue 1 C200-C205, Copyright © 1988 by American Physiological Society
A microelectrometric titration method for measurement of total intracellular Cl- concentration
K. Bomsztyk, M. B. Calalb, L. Smith and T. H. Stanton
Division of Nephrology, University of Washington, Seattle 98195.
A microelectrometric titration method is described to measure picomole
amounts of Cl- present in solutions at micromolar concentrations. This
method was used to measure total intracellular chloride concentration
([Cl-]i) in leukocytes. Through the use of submicroliter samples, [Cl-] can
be measured in the range of 5-500 microM. There is no measurable
interference from other ions normally present in the cell and no
intracellular ion is falsely measured as Cl-. [Cl-]i determined by the
conventional coulometric titration and the new microelectrometric titration
method was the same. Among the commonly used substituting anions,
thiocyanate was the only one falsely measured as Cl- and should be avoided
in experiments using this method. Because only picomole amounts of Cl- are
required, measurements of intracellular pH and total concentrations of
other intracellular ions can be done in the same lysate of as few as 5 X
10(5) cells. This feature should make it possible to study the time course
of changes in [Cl-]i together with measurements of other intracellular ions
following various physiological or experimental maneuvers.
