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. 1967 Jan;188(1):99–105. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.1967.sp008126

An upper limit to the number of sodium channels in nerve membrane?

J W Moore, T Narahashi, T I Shaw
PMCID: PMC1395983  PMID: 6032201

Abstract

1. A small volume of artificial sea water containing 300 nM tetrodotoxin (TTX) was applied successively to seven lobster nerve trunks and the cumulative uptake of toxin investigated by bio-assay.

2. Light and electron microscopy indicated that the nerve trunks had a total axonal area of 0·7 × 104 cm2/g.

3. Sodium analysis gave a sodium space for the nerve trunks of 30%.

4. The amount of toxin taken up by the cells in 1 g of nerve is less than 1·6 × 10-11 moles.

5. It is argued that there are probably fewer than 13 sodium channels/μ2 axon in lobster nerve.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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