Further studies on absorption changes arising in dye-stained nerves during excitation

Summary

Changes in light absorption during nerve excitation (absorption responses) were detected from the crab leg nerve, the rabbit vagus, and the rat superior cervical ganglion (SCG) stained with a merocyanine-rhodanine. Dependences of the responses on the wavelength and polarization of the incident light (absorption spectra) showed characteristic features with the respective nerves. In the crab nerve, the pattern of response spectra was precisely analyzed based on the previously proposed scheme, which included the shift of absorption bands and the statistical reorientation of absorption oscillators of the dye molecules in the membrane matrix during nerve excitation. Different patterns of the response spectra between the crab nerve and the rabbit vagus suggested that distinct physicochemical environments of the dye occurred in these two classes of membranes. On the other hand, the characteristic pattern that arose in the rat SCG was explained by its morphological form, that is, unlike those in a bundle of axons, the membrane elements in the ganglion were randomly oriented with respect to the direction of the light polarization.