Abstract
Koketsu and Kimura1 have reported experiments in which the potassium concentration within frog muscle fibres [K]i was reduced by soaking sartorii in hypotonic sucrose solutions. They found that, although [K]i was reduced from 130 to about 48 m.equiv./l fibre water by this procedure, the membrane potential of the fibres measured in normal Ringer's fluid by the micro-electrode technique was not decreased. It remained at about 93 mV, in spite of the fact that the potassium-equilibrium potential EK was then only 80 mV. They concluded that the results did not favour the ionic theory of membrane potential2–4. Ling also quoted these experiments5 as evidence against the membrane theory.
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References
Koketsu, K., and Kimura, Y., J. Cell. Comp. Physiol., 55, 239 (1960).
Bernstein, J., Pflüg. Arch. ges. Physiol., 92, 521 (1902).
Boyle, P. J., and Conway, E. J., J. Physiol., 100, 1 (1941).
Hodgkin, A. L., Biol. Rev. Camb. Phil. Soc., 26, 339 (1957).
Ling, G. N., A Physical Theory of the Living State—The Association-Induction Hypothesis (Blaisdell Publ. Co., New York, 1962).
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KERNAN, R. Membrane Potential of Electrolyte-depleted Muscle Fibres. Nature 204, 83–84 (1964). https://doi.org/10.1038/204083a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/204083a0
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