神経興奮と膜の旋光性変化
スポンサーリンク
概要
- 論文の詳細を見る
Department of Cell Physiology, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Okazaki 444 Excitation of the neuronal membrane is generally believed to result from the conformational change of the membrane channel molecules. In order to detect such a molecular change by optical means, measurements of the optical activity change of the nerve were preformed. The reason for selecting this method is that the concentration of the channel in a living nerve is low (about 20nM in the lobster nerve), and the optical activity measurement can be performed with a low concentration sample. An optical apparatus was constructed for detecting optical activity change of the lobster nerve. Since the nerve shows birefringence changes when the nerve is excited, it was necessary to separate the birefringence signal from the signal due to the change in optical rotation. The optical rotation signal showed a faster time course than that of the birefringence signal. The amplitude of the change sometimes reached 2×10<SUP>-4</SUP> degree. The direction was variable, being either an increase or a decrease of the dextrorotation. A possible explanation for this diversity is that the direction of the optical rotation probably depends on the angle between the direction of helices in the channel molecules and the direction of propagation of the light beam, and the observed change in optical rotation is a difference between large dextrorotatory and levorotatory changes.
- 日本膜学会の論文