BIO304H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Membrane Potential, Voltage Clamp, Reversal Potential
Document Summary
Curare: blocks acetocholine antagonist: no stimulation of the muscle. Vertebrate neuromuscular junction: have end plate potentials, junctional folds increases surface area so there are more. These are tightly opposed to the vesicles, allowing for highly effective communication: ap arrives, influx of ca, break down of ach limits time that the neuron can be active. Fig 6-13: open circles are vesicles, nm junction is more readily available for experimentation. Opening, nt binds, leads to ap called end plate potential or post-synaptic potential. Muscle ap propagated if we measure near the nm junction. More curare applied = reduction in end plate potential because. Curare reduces the size of the end plate potentials. End plate potential degrades the more ach receptors blocked: the farther it is from the stimulus source the more it degrades. Receptors are ligand gataed and respond to the nt that bind to. Moves by elctrotonic spread and degrades with distance them.
