Electrical activity of grafted myometrium and its recording by radio-telemetry in unrestrained rabbits

1. The electrical activity in myometrial grafts in fifty-one female rabbits with ear chambers fitted with pick-up electrodes has been monitored. An FM telemetry system has made long-term studies possible in the freely moving animal. 2. Two distinct patterns of electrical activity were observed either arising spontaneously or provoked by oxytocin. These were the 'long-duration burst' containing about 50-150 spikes, and the 'short-duration burst' containing 1-10 spikes. 3. The spike frequency within the long-duration bursts varied between 0-9 and 1-3 spikes sec-1 and was fairly constant during the first half of the burst. The frequency of the bursts in the long series of short-duration bursts was about 2-3 min-1. 4. When activity from grafts in two chambers in the same animal was monitored for long periods, spontaneous activity occurred at random throughout the day in each graft, indicating that the spontaneous activity was probably myogenic.