Membrane channels and muscle disease.

Membrane channels so far characterized at the single channel level and their possible involvement in muscle dysfunction are reviewed. Experiments using isolated external intercostal muscle from a patient with Torbergsen syndrome and isolated rat muscles with chemically induced myotonia suggest further involvement of membrane channels in muscle disease. Both the presence of unusual channels and the absence of normal channels can confer properties on the sarcolemmal and sarcoplasmic reticular membranes which give rise to peculiar and distinctive defects in muscle behaviour.