The effects of potassium and calcium on the electrical properties of squid axons

✍ Scribed by Steinbach, H. Burr ;Spiegelman, Sol ;Kawata, N.

• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 1944
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 520 KB
• Volume: 24
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0095-9898
• DOI: 10.1002/jcp.1030240206

✦ Synopsis

T W O FIGURES

Injury potentials are frequently interpreted as measures of ion permeability of cell membranes. I n particular, variations in such bioelectric potentials when the ionic environment of the cells is altered have been invoked as indices of permeability changes. Certain difficulties have been pointed out however (Steinbach, '40 b) which prevent precise interpretations and cast some doubt on the reliability of the conclusions. The over-all potential difference (or current flow as the case may be) appears to be of too generalized a nature to be of much vduc in idcntifying specific mechanisms which may be operative.

Recently Cole and his collaborators (Cole and Curtis, '41 ; Guttman and Cole, '41) have called attention to the fact that the nerve membrane possesses properties similar to that of a rectifier with respect to current flow. A direct current flows outward across the membrane more easily than inward and thus there is found a difference in resistance with the two orientations of flow. This difference may be 'Aided by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to Washington University.