Ion channels are well-known functional proteins, and their activity can be directly estimated by monitoring ion currents through channel proteins using the patch-clamp technique (Hamill et al., 1981), which is a fine tool for the investigation of not only ion channels, but also the membrane current and membrane potential of the whole cell. Many investigators have applied the patch-clamp techniq...

The effects of ( + )-tubocurarine (TC) on single glutamate-activated channels in voltage-clamped locust muscle fibres have been examined using the patch-clamp technique. Glutamate alone produced a concentration-dependent increase in the probability of the channel being in the open state (po), but an increase in the concentration of glutamate (5 X 10~-5 X 10~ mol P ' ) in the presence of 5 X 10~...

Both patch-clamp and molecular biology provide powerful tools to investigate ion channels. However, the approaches couldn’t be more different. While patch-clamp probes protein function on the scale of a single cell or even down to a single molecule, molecular biology includes techniques that identify the protein, and requires mostly cell populations. According to current knowledge and compared ...

The patch clamp technique is commonly used in electrophysiological experiments and offers direct insight into ion channel properties through the characterization of ion channel activity. This technique can be used to elucidate the interaction between a drug and a specific ion channel at different conformational states to understand the ion channel modulators' mechanisms. The patch clamp techniq...

The patch-clamp recording technique, which measures ionic currents under voltage clamp, was designed to study small patches of membranes in which near perfect control of the transmembrane voltage can be achieved readily. The recent application of patch-clamp methodology to the analysis of whole-cell current actually defies many of the original design requirements. Nevertheless, whole-cell recor...