Frog skeletal muscle fibers: changes in electrical properties after disruption of transverse tubular system

Abstract

In muscle fibers which have been exposed for 1 hour to a Ringer solution containing 400 millimolar glycerol and then returned to plain Ringer solution, the transverse tubular system is disrupted. At the same time the membrane capacitance is markedly reduced and hyperpolarizing current pulses no longer produce a slow, progressive increase in potential (creep). The large capacitance of muscle and the phenomenon of "creep" must both depend on an intact transverse tubular system.