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Revista de la Facultad de Medicina
versão impressa ISSN 0120-0011
Resumo
BARCO-RIOS, John; DUQUE-PARRA, Jorge Eduardo e BARCO-CANO, Johanna Alexandra. The refractory period of excitable cells: Inconsistencies of a dogma?. rev.fac.med. [online]. 2020, vol.68, n.2, pp.279-282. Epub 29-Jun-2021. ISSN 0120-0011. https://doi.org/10.15446/revfacmed.v68n2.74440.
Introduction:
Voltage-gated Na+ and K+ channels have activation and inactivation gates that open and close depending on the intensity of the electric current flowing through the membrane when it is responding to a stimulus. During this brief moment, the membrane enters a refractory period that makes it insensitive to other stimuli.
Objective:
To prove that absolute and relative refractory periods occur as the action potential develops rather than after it has been completed, by means of a theoretical analysis based on the normal electrical functioning of voltage-gated Na+ and K+ channels.
Questioning:
Several texts and articles on physiology provide confusing and misleading definitions of absolute and relative refractory periods, since they don't consider the normal functioning of voltage-gated channels. Furthermore, the location they give to these periods in relation to the action potential is out-of-time and their duration remains uncertain.
Conclusion:
Absolute and relative refractory periods occur as the action potential develops rather than after it has been completed.
Palavras-chave : Action Potentials; Ion Channels; Physiology (MeSH).