A quantitative description of stimulation-induced changes in transmitter release at the frog neuromuscular junction

Endplate potentials were recorded from frog sartorius neuromuscular junctions under conditions of greatly reduced quantal contents to develop a quantitative description of stimulation-induced changes in transmitter release. Four general models relating potentiation, augmentation, and the first and second components of facilitation to transmitter release were developed. These models were then tested by incorporating equations for the kinetic properties of the four components of increased transmitter release and examining the ability of the resulting sets of equations to predict stimulation-induced changes in transmitter release. Three of the models were essentially consistent with the observation that augmentation had a multiplicative type relationship to facilitation. These models could also predict the effect of frequency and duration of stimulation on endplate potential (EPP) amplitude during and after prolonged (40 s) trains including the response to step changes in stimulation rate. These models extend by about two orders of magnitude the duration of stimulation-induced changes in transmitter release that can be accounted for, and show that the combined kinetic properties of potentiation, augmentation, and the two components of facilitation are generally sufficient to account for these changes.