Sodium Channel
Sodium channels are integral membrane proteins that form ion channels, conducting sodium ions (Na+) through a cell's plasma membrane. They are classified according to the trigger that opens the channel for such ions, i.e. either a voltage-change ("Voltage gated", "voltage sensitive" or "voltage dependant" sodium channel also called "VGSCs" or "Nav channel") or binding of a substance (a ligand) to the channel (ligand-gated sodium channels).
In excitable cells such as neurons, myocytes, and certain types of glia, sodium channels are responsible for the rising phase of action potentials.
Read more about Sodium Channel: Ligand-gated, Role in Action Potential
Famous quotes containing the words sodium and/or channel:
“Every reader of the Dreiser novels must cherish astounding specimens—of awkward, platitudinous marginalia, of whole scenes spoiled by bad writing, of phrases as brackish as so many lumps of sodium hyposulphite.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“The Xanthus or Scamander is not a mere dry channel and bed of a mountain torrent, but fed by the ever-flowing springs of fame ... and I trust that I may be allowed to associate our muddy but much abused Concord River with the most famous in history.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)