The N-shaped current-potential characteristic in frog skin. II. Kinetic behavior during ramp voltage clamp.

Previous step voltage-clamp measurements on frog skin showed the presence of an N-shaped current-potential (I-V) relation in excitable skin. However, the collection and reconstruction of I-V data using discrete step changes of skin potential was tedious because of the long refractory period (up to 1 min) in frog skin. A direct and rapid (5 msec) method for recording the N-shaped I-V characteristic in real time is presented. Ramp functions are used as the command to the clamp system instead of a step function. Consequently the skin potential is forced to change in a linear manner (as commanded) and the skin current can be recorded as a continuous function of the controlled change of skin potential. With the ramp clamp, a low-resistance membrane state ( 10 Omega . cm(2)) resembling a breakdown phenomenon was observed at high skin potential ( 300 mv). Entry into the low resistance state resulted in a collapse of the N-shaped I-V relation to a nearly linear function. The utility of the ramp measurement is demonstrated by predicting (1) that the maximum rate of rise of the spike occurs at a voltage corresponding to the valley (local minimum) in the N-shaped I-V curve, (2) that the rate of rise of the spike increases with increasing clamp currents, (3) the voltage peak of the spike, and (4) the time course of the rising phase of the spike.