Membrane current of crab muscle.

Abstract

THE electrophysiology of crab muscle fibres appears to be different from that of other skeletal muscles in that crab muscle ordinarily does not support a propagated action potential. Instead, local end plate potentials initiate and abolish muscle contraction1,2. To determine the relationship between transmembrane potential, current, and time, experiments were performed on the closer muscle of the walking legs of crab (Cancer magister) collected at the University of Washington Laboratories at Friday Harbor, Washington. The artificial saline solution used contained sodium chloride 466 mM, potassium chloride 8 mM, magnesium chloride 12 mM, calcium chloride 20 mM.