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Patch Clamp

Patch Clamp

Many fundamental cell functions such as muscle contraction and nerve transmission rely on the electrical signals produced by the movement of positively and negatively charged ions across the cell membrane. One competent method to record current flowing across the whole cell or single ion channel is the patch-clamp technique.
In this method, a glass micropipette containing electrolyte solution is tightly sealed against a small portion of the cell membrane. As a result, a patch of the cell...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 7, 2025

Electrophysiological and Morphological Characterization of Neuronal Microcircuits in Acute Brain Slices Using Paired Patch-Clamp Recordings

Electrophysiological and Morphological Characterization of Neuronal Microcircuits in Acute Brain Slices Using Paired Patch-Clamp Recordings

Published on: January 10, 2015

Patch-walking, a coordinated multi-pipette patch clamp for efficiently finding synaptic connections.

Mighten C Yip¹, Mercedes M Gonzalez¹, Colby F Lewallen²

¹George W Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, United States.

|November 18, 2024

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Patch-walking is a new method to efficiently measure synaptic connections between neurons. This technique probes more connections per experiment, significantly improving the study of neural circuits.

Keywords:

cortex electrophysiology mouse neuroscience synapse

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Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 7, 2025

Electrophysiological and Morphological Characterization of Neuronal Microcircuits in Acute Brain Slices Using Paired Patch-Clamp Recordings

Electrophysiological and Morphological Characterization of Neuronal Microcircuits in Acute Brain Slices Using Paired Patch-Clamp Recordings

Published on: January 10, 2015

A Computer-assisted Multi-electrode Patch-clamp System

A Computer-assisted Multi-electrode Patch-clamp System

Published on: October 18, 2013

Evaluation of Synaptic Multiplicity Using Whole-cell Patch-clamp Electrophysiology

Evaluation of Synaptic Multiplicity Using Whole-cell Patch-clamp Electrophysiology

Published on: April 23, 2019

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Cellular Biology
Electrophysiology

Background:

Measuring synaptic connections in living brain tissue presents significant technical challenges.
Traditional patch clamping for synaptic analysis is labor-intensive and time-consuming.

Purpose of the Study:

To develop a more efficient method for probing synaptic connections in brain tissue.
To improve the efficiency of patch clamping techniques for neural circuit analysis.

Main Methods:

Developed 'patch-walking,' a technique where one patch clamp pipette is reused for subsequent recordings while others remain in place.
Performed 136 patch clamp attempts with two pipettes, achieving 71 successful whole-cell recordings (52.2%).
Probed 29 neuron pairs (58 bidirectional connections) with an average intersomatic distance of 91 μm.

Main Results:

Identified three synaptic connections among the probed pairs.
Patch-walking yielded 80-92% more probed connections compared to traditional methods in experiments involving 10-100 cells.
Demonstrated the feasibility of reusing patch clamp pipettes to increase recording efficiency.

Conclusions:

Patch-walking significantly enhances the efficiency of probing synaptic connections in brain slices.
This method offers a substantial improvement over traditional patch clamping for studying neural circuits.
The technique facilitates a broader exploration of synaptic connectivity in experimental settings.