title: The effect of procaine on the passive electrical properties of guinea-pig ventricular muscle.
abstract: Electrotonic potentials produced by rectangular hyperpolarizing current pulses were recorded intracellularly at various distances from guinea-pig papillary muscles and the results were analyzed according to the single-dimensional cable model. In normal Tyrode solution the space constant (lambda) was 0.62 +/- 0.12 mm (mean and S.D., nine preparations) and the time constant (tau) was 4.0 +/- 0.8 ms. Procaine (1 mg/ml) increased lambda to 1.20 +/- 0.29 mm and tau to 19.7 +/- 4.7 ms by increasing the membrane resistance, while the membrane capacity was only slightly increased and little change was observed in the internal longitudinal resistance. The dose-response relationship revealed that procaine inhibited the resting membrane conductance almost completely in a one-to-one manner with the dissociation constant of about 1 mM. It was suggested that potassium conductance predominant in the resting membrane conductance in guinea-pig papillary muscle was depressed by procaine and that electrical coupling is well maintained even when the membrane resistivity of apposed normal ordinary membrane at intercalated disks becomes high.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D006168:Guinea Pigs; D006321:Heart / Q000187:drug effects*; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D008012:Lidocaine / Q000494:pharmacology; D008564:Membrane Potentials / Q000187:drug effects; D008954:Models, Biological; D010210:Papillary Muscles / Q000187:drug effects; D011342:Procainamide / Q000494:pharmacology; D011343:Procaine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D011343:Procaine; D008012:Lidocaine; D011342:Procainamide