Introduction Pilocarpine is a muscarinic receptor agonist that stimulates the activity of the muscarinic receptor upon binding (Desaki et al., 1998). When pilocarpine binds to a specific binding site on the receptor, a conformational change from a closed to open conformation is induced. (Auerbach, 2014) This open conformation has a much greater affinity for binding agonist (Auerbach, 2014). The increase in affinity leads to higher stimulation of the receptor (Aurbach, 2014). This continual stimulation will increase transmission of the action potential to the postsynaptic cell, to cause muscle contraction (Desaki et al., 1998). While it has been shown that pilocarpine serves as an agonist for muscarinic receptors, it has not been concluded …show more content…
The effects of pilocarpine have been studied more commonly in the autonomic nervous system where it stimulates parasympathetic processes such as increasing heart rate (Rossum et al., 1960). In the parasympathetic system pilocarpine is said to have the same function as acetylcholine in stimulating smooth muscles such as the intestines (Rossum et al., 1960). However, pilocarpine had a competitive effect with acetylcholine when applied to the heart of a frog (Rossum et al., 1960). Considering the muscle of the intestines is mostly smooth, while the muscle in the heart is striated similar to skeletal muscle, I can conclude that pilocarpine acts similar to an antagonist in striated …show more content…
This experiment will be conducted to determine if the muscarinic receptor agonist pilocarpine, also has agonistic effects on nicotinic receptors. Synaptic delay and EC coupling time will be recorded from the bullfrog NMJ using the powerlab software/hardware. The bullfrog has been chosen as the experimental animal due to the accessibility, and easier removal of the NMJ compared to other NMJ’s such as neural NMJ’s (Mackenzie et al., 2015). Neural NMJ’s and NMJ’s in smaller animals would be more difficult to remove intact without damage due to their smaller size as well as their inconvenient locations (Mackenzie et al., 2015). On the contrast, animals larger than the bullfrog may have more accessible NMJ’s; however, they would be too large to experiment with in my lab. Thus, the most ideal animal for this experiment is the bullfrog. Additionally, the powerlab hardware (force transducer and stimulating/recording electrodes) will allow me to stimulate and record changes in membrane potential (voltage) over time. The powerlab software will then translate those recordings into graphs for me to view. From the graphs I will be able to determine the synaptic delay and EC coupling times. . Based on pilocarpine’s effect on other striated muscles, I