Analysis of pace-maker and repolarization currents in frog atrial muscle

1. A quantitative analysis of the time-dependent component of outward membrane current in atrial wall trabeculae from Rana catesbeiana and Rana ridibunda has been carried out using a double sucrose gap technique. 2. Separation of the different components of delayed outward current was hampered by the sigmoid onset of one of the outward current systems ixfast and by the development of potassium ion accumulation which prevented current activation from reaching a steady state at positive membrane potentials. Semilogarithmic analysis of positive current decay tails recorded immediately following square voltage clamp depolarizations was therefore used to separate the two membrane conductance components ixfast and ixslow and the third component, attributable to potassium ion accumulation, which was almost invariably present in the tails. 3. It is shown that inaccuracies in this method of semilogarithmic separation of components caused by visual assessment of the i3 (accumulation) line are minor compared with the large changes in the time constants of ixfast and more especially of ixslow which would result from ignoring the potassium accumulation component. 4. Such semilogarithmic separation of the three components of outward current gave separate activation curves for each of the two membrane conductance components, ixfast and ixslow. 5. Measurement of 'total' activation curves in which all components of outward current were represented could be made more easily and fairly reliably. The position and shape of these activation curves on the voltage axis were found to closely resemble those obtained by three component separation. It is therefore suggested that such a simplified analysis reflects the properties of the individual currents sufficiently well for it to be of use in preliminary studies of, for example, drug action. 6. The kinetic properties of the atrial outward currents have been investigated over a wide potential range. Because of the presence of potassium ion accumulation, an indirect method of obtaining the average value of 1/gamma for outward current decay at negative potentials had to be employed. 7. It is shown that some degree of inward-going rectification is associated with the outward current systems of frog atrium. 8. The possible reasons for the differences between the analysis presented here and those presented earlier by us (Brown & Noble, 1969a, b) and by Ojeda & Rougier (1974) are discussed.