Potassium Inactivation and Impedance Changes during Spike Electrogenesis in Eel Electroplaques

Various degrees of pharmacological K inactivation were induced by Cs or Ba in isolated single electroplaques of the electric eel. The resulting changes in K conductance give rise to very different steady-state current-voltage characteristics. They also induce differences in ion dynamics during spike electrogenesis. The dynamic changes were studied by AC bridge methods, registering the changes in impedance in synchrony with the neurally or directly evoked spikes. While spike electrogenesis was virtually unaffected by addition of Cs or Ba, the patterns of impedance changes were very different. The various patterns are accounted for by the changes in the respective current-voltage characteristics. The data constitute new evidence for regarding the electrically excitable component of the reactive membrane as a heterogeneous electrochemical system with separate and independently reactive channels that in the electroplaques are permselective for Na and K, respectively.

Delayed Rectification and Anomalous Rectification in Frog's Skeletal Muscle Membrane

Delayed rectification was elicited in frog's skeletal muscles bathed in choline-Ringer's solution, in normal Ringer's solution with tetrodotoxin, in 40 mM Na2SO4 solution with tetrodotoxin, and even in 40 mM K2SO4 solution when the membrane had been previously hyperpolarized. However, after a sustained depolarization current-voltage relations in 40 mM K2SO4 and in 40 mM Na2SO4 solutions revealed a rectifier property in the anomalous direction. This indicates that the increase in potassium conductance which is brought about upon depolarization is a transient phenomenon and is inactivated by a maintained depolarization, and that this potassium inactivation process converts the delayed rectification into the anomalous rectification. In normal Ringer's solution with tetrodotoxin and in the 40 mM Na2SO4 solution with tetrodotoxin the apparent resistance was increased when the membrane was hyperpolarized beyond about -150 mv. This is thought to be due to a decrease of K conductance caused by a strong hyperpolarizing current. In the 40 mM Na2SO4 solution with tetrodotoxin a de- or hyperpolarizing current pulse induced a prolonged depolarizing response. During the early phase of this response the effective resistance was lower, and during the following phase greater than that in the resting fiber. An interpretation in terms of the ionic hypothesis was made of the nature of this response.