Patch Clamp

Patch Clamp

The patch clamp technique is a laboratory technique in electrophysiology that allows the study of single or multiple ion channels in cells. The technique can be applied to a wide variety of cells, but is especially useful in the study of excitable cells such as neurons, cardiomyocytes, muscle fibers and pancreatic beta cells. It can also be applied to the study of bacterial ion channels in specially prepared giant spheroplasts.

The patch clamp technique is a refinement of the voltage clamp. Erwin Neher and Bert Sakmann developed the patch clamp in the late 1970s and early 1980s. This discovery made it possible to record the currents of single ion channels for the first time, proving their involvement in fundamental cell processes such as action potential conduction. Neher and Sakmann received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1991 for this work.

Read more about Patch ClampBasic Technique, Variations

Other articles related to "patch, patch clamp":

Electrophysiology - Intracellular Recording - The Patch-clamp Technique
... Conventional intracellular recording involves impaling a cell with a fine electrode patch-clamp recording takes a different approach ... A patch-clamp microelectrode is a micropipette with a relatively large tip diameter ... gentle suction is applied through the microelectrode to draw a piece of the cell membrane (the 'patch') into the microelectrode tip the glass tip forms a high resistance 'seal' with the cell ...
Dendritic Spike - Experimental Methods - Patch Clamp
... Patch clamp recording is used to measure electrical activity in neurons ... Current injection is often paired with patch clamp recordings in order to observe current modulation due to various experimental factors ...
Patch Clamp - Variations - Loose Patch
... Loose patch clamp is different in that it employs a loose seal rather than the tight gigaseal used in the conventional technique ...

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