Electrical excitation charge transport mechanisms

We have given perhaps undue attention to the mobile carrier mechanism because at one time it was assumed that the Na and K transport in excitable cell membranes occurred precisely via this mechanism. In 1965, Chandler and Meves undertook an experiment to assess the aforementioned specifics of the high-frequency conductance. A nerve fiber was placed in a solution containing no Na or K ions. This precluded direct current through the membrane. However, if there had been any mobile charged carriers in the membrane, the authors would have detected current on application of a variable field. The authors did not observe a detectable current under these conditions, from which it could be deduced that the transport systems of excitable membrane are structured as ion channels whose conductance is controlled by electric field. 

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