Audrey C. Brumback*, Robert Zorec*† and William J. Betz*
*Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, CO 80262, USA and †Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology-Molecular Cell Physiology, Medical School, University of Ljubljana, Zaloska 4, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
In 1952, Fatt & Katz demonstrated that bathing the frog neuromuscular junction in a hypertonic solution causes a calcium-independent increase in the frequency of miniature end plate potentials (mEPPs). Only recently has the molecular explanation for this phenomenon begun to take shape. The report by Kashani et al. in this issue of The Journal of Physiology represents an important advance in this direction that results from the merger of research on integrins and the effects of stretch and hypertonicity.
