Bernard Katz, quantal transmitter release and the foundations of presynaptic physiology

摘要

The papers by Fatt & Katz (1952) and del Castillo & Katz (1954) were watershed events in the history of synaptic physiology because they established that neuro-transmitters are released from presynaptic terminals in discrete 'quanta'. Bernard Katz and colleagues employed the frog neuro-muscular junction, an accessible peripheral synapse that had already been used to establish some basic principles of synaptic action. Using the then-new technique ofintracellular microelectrode recording, Katz and colleagues recorded the postsynaptic responses - termed the end-plate potential (EPP) - resulting from the action of acetyl-choline (ACh) on the postsynaptic muscle cell.