Cooperative Critical Thermal Transition of potassium Accumulation in Smooth Muscle

Abstract

The steady-state levels of potassium and sodium of taenia coli of guinea are critically affected by varying temperature in the narrow range 12° to °C. For the accumulation of both cations the critical temperature, T_c, is 13.8°C the presence of millimolar external potassium. The value of T_c, decreases 10.0°C when the external potassium is raised to 10 millimolar. Since, at a fixed Temperature, the potassium accumulation follows a cooperative mechanism, the results are compared with the quantitative predictions of this approach. The itical thermal transition behavior can be described in terms of the cooperative cumulation process.