Molecular Basis for Postjunctional Conductance Increases Induced by Acetylcholine
This extract was created in the absence of an abstract.
Excerpt
From electrical measurements made on the frog neuromuscular junction, we have drawn inferences about properties of the acetylcholine (ACh) receptor and its associated channel for ion permeation (Magleby and Stevens 1972a,b; Anderson and Stevens 1973; Dionne and Stevens 1975). Some conclusions of our studies are summarized here.
Experiments have been carried out on neuromuscular junctions in preparations of frog cutaneous pectoris muscle. In this preparation, the nerve terminal and associated Schwann-cell nucleus can be seen clearly with Nomarski differential interference contrast optics, and microelectrodes may be positioned intracellularly or extracellularly at known distances from the postjunctional membrane. We use two intracellular microelectrodes, one for recording voltage and a second for passing current, and measure postjunctional conductance changes with the voltage-clamp technique as first described by Takeuchi and Takeuchi (1959). ACh is applied iontophoretically from an external micropipette or by nerve-evoked release of ACh quanta. In some experiments, we also measure...
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↵* Present address: Department of Physiology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06510.
