On the time course of the electrical response of salivary gland cells of Nauphoeta cinerea to ionophoretically applied dopamine

1. An attempt has been made to account for the latency and slow time course of the electrical responses of salivary gland cells of Nauphoeta cinerea (Olivier) to nerve stimulation and ionophoretically applied dopamine from a pipette placed as close as possible to the acinar surface. 2. The effects have been investigated on the time course of the ionophoretic response of changes in the distance of the pipette from the acinar surface and of the amount of dopamine ejected. 3. The observed changes were smaller than those predicted by models in which the rate limiting step was assumed to be diffusion or slow receptor kinetics. Indirect evidence suggests that the time course of the response is determined by processes subsequent to receptor activation.