CYTOLOGIA
Online ISSN : 1348-7019
Print ISSN : 0011-4545
Studies on the Protoplasmic Nature of Stimulation and Anesthesia
Henry T. Northen
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JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

1939 Volume 10 Issue 1-2 Pages 105-112

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Abstract

Uneven pressure and hypertonic sucrose solutions decrease the structural viscosity of protoplasm in cells of Spirogyra as evidenced by the fact that an acceleration which would not displace the chloroplasts in most cells of control filaments would displace the chloroplasts in most cells of filaments which had been stimulated by uneven pressure or hypertonic sucrose solutions. Presumably the decrease in structual viscosity results from the separation of the proteins from the protoplasmic network and their concomitant change from a chain to a globular form.
Following short immersions in ether the structural viscosity of Spirogyra protoplasm, as determined by the centrifuge method, is less than that of normal protoplasm. After longer immersions in ether the structural viscosity returns to approximately normal. Although the structural viscosity returns to approximately normal the protoplasmic pattern does not, because the altered protoplasmic pattern cannot be stimulated by an electrical current as can the normal protoplasmic pattern; that is, after long immersions in ether the protoplasm is anesthetized as evidenced by the observations that in normal cells an electrical current of 2 ma. acting for 2 minutes causes a decrease in structural viscosity whereas in anesthetized cells the electrical current does not cause an appreciable decrease in the structural viscosity. Biochemically the course of anesthesia may be as follows: the initial break down of the protoplasmic network (as evidenced by the decrease in structural viscosity) is followed by a rearrangement of the network constituents. The rearranged pattern is a relatively non-sensitive one. However, the original sensitive pattern can be obtained again by allowing the anesthetized filaments to remain in water for 60 or more minutes following the ether treatment.

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© The Japan Mendel Society
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