Electric field distribution, ionic selectivity and permeability in nerve

Abstract

From a model of facilitated ionic transport across axonal membranes proposed by McIlroy (1975), the equipotentials and electric field distributions in the vicinity of a potassium conducting pore and of a sodium conducting pore are computed and presented as two-dimensional mappings. The model is then extended to include the effect of impurity ions in the conducting pores viz. of potassium ions in a sodium pore and of sodium ions in a potassium pore. The ionic selectivities and permeabilities of the transported species are discussed in relation to the extended model. Bounds are deduced for the ionic selectivity coefficients for both the sodium and potassium current-carrying systems in squid giant axons and the electric-field distributions in the vicinities of the pores are computed for the extended model and compared with the impurity-free fields first calculated.

Finally the permeability coefficients defined in terms of the extended model are shown to reconcile the results of attempts to measure permeability by means of radioactive tracer techniques, with the classical description of the resting nerve.