A study of the healing-over in the cardiac muscle using suction electrodes

Suction electrodes were used to investigate the phenomenon of the healing-over in preparations of rabbit, cat and dog ventricular muscles. At least two processes were shown to participate in the process of the healing-over: a rapid one (time constant approximately 1 min) and a slow one (time constant approximately 10 min). Procion Yellow dye was used to determine the size of the injured zone under the suction electrode tip. Larger tips resulted in larger zones injured. The specific resistance of the border formed during the healing over was estimated to be in the range of approx. 1 k omega X cm2, i.e. much smaller than that of the intact surface membrane.