(Current Clinical Neurology.) Second edition. Edited by Henry J. Kaminski. 310 pp., illustrated. Totowa, NJ, Humana Press, 2009. $139. ISBN 978-1-58829-852-2 (cloth); 978-1-59745-156-7 (e-book).
In these exciting times of nanotechnology, the neuromuscularjunction is an interesting example of a remarkably robust andefficient small machine. One normal nerve impulse opens about200 presynaptic vesicles, flooding the synapse with 10,000 acetylcholinemolecules. The acetylcholine receptors, each 20 nm in size,are positioned shoulder to shoulder at a density of 20,000 receptorsper square micrometer at the postsynaptic membrane. They arewaiting to bind their ligands and then to quickly react by openingand initiating a contraction of the muscle fiber. Amazingly,the whole process can repeat easily at a rate of 20 times persecond. . . . [Full Text of this Article]
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