The mammalian nodal action potential: new data bring new perspectives

Autor: Geoffrey R. Tanner, Anastasios V. Tzingounis
Rok vydání: 2022
Předmět:
Zdroj: Advances in Physiology Education. 46:693-702
ISSN: 1522-1229
1043-4046
Popis: Since its discovery in the mid-20th century, the Hodgkin-Huxley biophysical model of the squid giant axon's (SGA's) neurophysiology has traditionally served as the basis for the teaching of action potential (AP) dynamics in the physiology classroom. This model teaches that leak conductances set membrane resting potential; that fast, inactivating, voltage-gated sodium channels effect the SGA AP upstroke; and that delayed, rectifying, noninactivating voltage-gated potassium channels carry AP repolarization and the early part of the afterhyperpolarization (AHP). This model serves well to introduce students to the fundamental ideas of resting potential establishment and maintenance, as well as basic principles of AP generation and propagation. Furthermore, the Hodgkin-Huxley SGA model represents an excellent and accessible starting point for discussion of the concept of AP threshold and the role of passive electrical properties of the neuron. Additionally, the introduction of the Hodgkin-Huxley model of the SGA AP permits the integration of physiological principles, as instructors ask students to apply previously studied principles of transporter and channel biophysics to the essential physiological phenomenon of electrical signal conduction. However, both some early observations as well as more recent evidence strongly suggest that this seminal invertebrate model of AP dynamics does not appropriately capture the full story for mammalian axons. We review recent evidence that mammalian axonal nodes of Ranvier repolarize largely (though not exclusively) through the activity of leak potassium-ion (K
Databáze: OpenAIRE