Services on Demand
Journal
Article
Indicators
Cited by SciELO
Access statistics
Related links
Cited by Google
Similars in SciELO
Similars in Google
Share
Revista de la Facultad de Medicina
Print version ISSN 0120-0011
Abstract
BARCO-RIOS, John; DUQUE-PARRA, Jorge Eduardo and BARCO-CANO, Johanna Alexandra. The refractory period of excitable cells: Inconsistencies of a dogma?. rev.fac.med. [online]. 2020, vol.68, n.2, pp.279-282. Epub June 29, 2021. ISSN 0120-0011. https://doi.org/10.15446/revfacmed.v68n2.74440.
Introduction:
Voltage-gated Na+ and K+ channels have activation and inactivation gates that open and close depending on the intensity of the electric current flowing through the membrane when it is responding to a stimulus. During this brief moment, the membrane enters a refractory period that makes it insensitive to other stimuli.
Objective:
To prove that absolute and relative refractory periods occur as the action potential develops rather than after it has been completed, by means of a theoretical analysis based on the normal electrical functioning of voltage-gated Na+ and K+ channels.
Questioning:
Several texts and articles on physiology provide confusing and misleading definitions of absolute and relative refractory periods, since they don't consider the normal functioning of voltage-gated channels. Furthermore, the location they give to these periods in relation to the action potential is out-of-time and their duration remains uncertain.
Conclusion:
Absolute and relative refractory periods occur as the action potential develops rather than after it has been completed.
Keywords : Action Potentials; Ion Channels; Physiology (MeSH).