Electrochemical Methods in Biology and Medicine

Cases are known where the external potentials attain high values. Even in antiquity, incomprehensible features of certain fishes were noted. Around 1800 it became clear that these features are associated with electric phenomena, and they were attributed to so-called animal electricity. It was in 1832, finally, that Faraday could show that the various types of electricity, including the animal variety, are identical in nature. Studies of the electric fishes performed in the first half of the nineteenth century had a notable effect on the development of bioelectrochemistry. 

The electricity-producing system of electric fishes is built as follows. A large number of flat cells (about 0.1 mm thick) are stacked like the flat unit cells connected in series in a battery. Each cell has two membranes facing each other. The membrane potentials of the two membranes compensate for each other. In a state of rest, no electrostatic potential difference can be noticed between the two sides of any cell or, consequently, between the ends of the stack. The ends of nerve cells come up to one of the membranes of each cell. When a nervous impulse is applied from outside, this membrane is excited, its membrane potential changes, and its permeability for ions also changes. Thus, the electrical symmetry of the cell is perturbed and a potential difference of about 0.1 V develops between the two sides. Since nervous impulses are applied simultaneously to one of the membranes in each cell, these small potential differences add up, and an appreciable voltage arises between the ends of the stack. 

In the electric organ of fishes, a number of such stacks are connected in parallel and in series. The total voltage attains 500 V in the electric eel. A current pulse of about 0.5 A develops when this voltage appears across an external circuit (in fresh water or seawater). For the electric ray, these numbers are 60 V and 50 A, respectively. The length of such an electric pulse is comparable with the time of cell membrane excitation (i.e., 1 to 2ms, which is quite sufficient to defeat a designated victim). Some species of fish use pulses repeated at certain intervals. 

The chemical composition of biological objects is extremely complex. They contain the macromolecules of proteins, lipids, and many other substances in addition to low-molecular-weight organic and inorganic compounds. Different external effects can produce both quantitative and qualitative composition changes some substances disappear and/or others appear. Some substances that are essential for the functioning of the cells or of the entire organism are present in very small concentrations, lO Mand less. 

Almost all of the methods described in Chapter 23 can be used for in vivo analyses, both voltammetric and potentiometric ones. The former are used primarily in the analysis of organic substances, which, within certain ranges of potential, can be either oxidized or reduced. Another popular method is the amperometric determination of oxygen in different biological media with the Clark electrode (Section 23.3). 

---