Abstract
THE observation of Lorente de Nó1, that small frog axons (“Et fibres”) are excitable in media where the sodium is totally replaced by certain quaternary ammonium, ions, has since been extended to crustacean muscle fibres2, frog A-fibres3,4, frog spinal ganglion cell-bodies5 and mammalian striated muscle6,7 and nerve8 fibres. Such findings suggested that the membrane of muscle fibres and neurones in different species was capable of maintaining excitability when the external sodium was replaced by a favourable cation possessing a tetracovalent nitrogen atom. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether synaptic transmission could also be maintained in sodium-free media. It is well known that the membrane characteristics of the junctional region are somewhat different from those possessing the conductile activity, since the post-synaptic membrane produces graded responses by the action of the transmitter released from the pre-synaptic membrane. It was previously reported9 that in the frog spinal ganglion cell-bodies hydrazinium ion was the most favourable substitute for sodium ion; the action potentials of cell-bodies being very similar to those observed in normal Ringer. An attempt to replace sodium ion by hydrazinium ion was quite successful; the neuromuscular transmission was restored in the sodium-free hydrazinium solution.
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KOKETSU, K., NISHI, S. Synaptic Transmission in a Sodium-free Medium. Nature 182, 887 (1958). https://doi.org/10.1038/182887a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/182887a0
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