Electrically gated ionic channels in lipid bilayers

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

The generation of action potentials in nerve and muscle requires cell membranes with steeply voltage-dependent ionic permeabilities. The voltage-dependent, ion-selective pathways responsible for excitation have been characterized for numerous excitable tissues such as nerve axon, muscle, electric organ, algae and epithelia (Aidley, 1971; Hodgkin, 1964; Cole, 1968). The process of activating ionic pathways by some stimulus, such as a change in membrane potential, is called gating.