Patch-clamp recording techniques have revolutionized understanding of the function and sub-cellular location of ion channels in excitable cells. The cell-attached patch-clamp configuration represents the method of choice to describe the endogenous properties of voltage-activated ion channels in the axonal, somatic and dendritic membrane of neurons, without disturbance of the intracellular milie...

Crude, diluted venoms of Parabuthus transvaalicus and P. granulatus were tested on isolated cardiomyocytes. Ventricular myocytes were subjected to hypercontractility tests and whole-cell voltage clamp. Both venoms had a profound influence on the hypercontractility of cardiomyocytes, which was markedly decreased when they were pre-absorbed with commercial antiserum. Whole-cell clamp results show...

Disproportionate hyperproinsulinemia is a feature of -cell dysfunction in type 2 diabetes. It has been hypothesized that this abnormality represents an intrinsic abnormality of the -cell and/or may result from an increase in -cell secretory demand. To address this, six patients with type 2 diabetes and six ageand BMImatched normal subjects received a combined 3-h insulin and somatostatin clamp ...

The patch-clamp technique has allowed for detailed studies on the electrical properties of neurons. Dye loading through patch pipettes enabled characterizing the morphological properties of the neurons. In addition, the patch-clamp technique also allows for harvesting mRNA from single cells to study gene expression at the single cell level (known as single-cell RT-PCR). The combination of these...

The patch clamp technique was first used by Neher and Sakmann (1976) to resolve currents through single acetylcholine-activated channels in cell-attached patches of membrane of frog skeletal muscle. The method they used (described by Neher, Sakmann & Steinbach, 1978) and subsequent refinements (Hamill, Marty, Neher, Sakmann & Sigworth, 1981) have led to techniques for high resolution recording ...