Some properties of excitatory junction currents recorded from submucosal arterioles of guinea‐pig ileum.

Excitatory junction potentials and excitatory junction currents have been recorded from short segments of arterioles taken from the submucosa of guinea-pig small intestine. Excitatory junction currents reached their peak amplitudes by 20 ms and then decayed, with a time course that could be described by a single exponential (mean time constant of decay approximately 50 ms). The null potential for excitatory junction currents obtained by extrapolation was near 0 mV. The time course of excitatory junction currents failed to show voltage sensitivity. Spontaneous excitatory junction currents had the same time course as evoked currents; the amplitudes of spontaneous currents were less than an order of magnitude different from that of evoked currents.