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Science 22 February 1974:
Vol. 183. no. 4126, pp. 753 - 754
DOI: 10.1126/science.183.4126.753
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Articles

Gating Currents of the Sodium Channels: Three Ways to Block Them

Francisco Bezanilla 1 and Clay M. Armstrong 2

1 Department of Physiology, University of Rochester School of Medicine, Rochester, New York 14642, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543, and University of Chile, Montemar
2 Department of Physiology, University of Rochester School of Medicine, and Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts

Preceding the opening of the sodium channels of axon membrane there is a small outward current, gating current, that is probably associated with the molecular rearrangements that open the channels. Gating current is reversibly blocked by three procedures that block the sodium current: (i) internal perfusion with zinc ions, (ii) inactivation of sodium conductance by brief depolarization, and (iii) prolonged depolarization.


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