title: The problem of nonstationary ion fluxes in excitable membranes.
abstract: Time-dependent electrodiffusion through a membrane is analysed within a simple model treating the boundary-layers in a consistent manner. It is shown that time-independent reversal potentials for the ion fluxes exist only under steady-state conditions. We argue that this result holds very generally. Therefore nonstationary effect like ion storage and depletion inside the membrane should not contribute to the phenomena of excitability.
mesh_terms: D001692:Biological Transport; D004058:Diffusion; D007477:Ions; D008433:Mathematics; D008564:Membrane Potentials; D008566:Membranes / Q000378:metabolism*; D008954:Models, Biological; D012964:Sodium / Q000378:metabolism; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D007477:Ions; D012964:Sodium