Abstract
The accurate knowledge of receptor kinetics is crucial to our understanding of cell signal transduction in general and neural function in particular. The classical technique of probing membrane receptors on a millisecond scale involves placing a recording micropipette with a membrane patch in front of a double-barrel (θ-glass) application pipette mounted on a piezo actuator. Driven by electric pulses, the actuator can rapidly shift the θ-glass pipette tip, thus exposing the target receptors to alternating ligand solutions. However, membrane patches survive for only a few minutes, thus normally restricting such experiments to a single-application protocol. In order to overcome this deficiency, we have introduced pressurized supply microcircuits in the θ-glass channels, thus enabling repeated replacement of application solutions within 10–15 s. This protocol, which has been validated in our recent studies and takes 20–60 min to implement, allows the characterization of ligand-receptor interactions with high sensitivity, thereby also enabling a powerful paired-sample statistical design.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1299–1306 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Nature Protocols |
Volume | 8 |
Issue number | 7 |
Early online date | 6 Jun 2013 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Jul 2013 |
Bibliographical note
AcknowledgementsThis work was supported by the Wellcome Trust, Medical Research Council (UK), the European Research Council (Advanced Grant), the European Commission COST Action BM1001 ECMNet, and the Biology and Biotechnology Research Council (UK).
Keywords
- Molecular neuroscience
- Patch clamp
- Receptor pharmacology