Sampling membrane potential, membrane resistance and electrode resistance with a glass electrode impaled into a...

A method is demonstrated to measure membrane resistances and membrane potentials of single cells during impalement by a single glass microelectrode. The intention was to develop a procedure which would provide data almost continuously. Therefore, a frequency-dependent voltage divider network has been chosen to represent the basic electrical properties of the electrode and cell membrane, and used to explore its voltage response to a current stimulus, consisting of two rectangular pulses of different widths. It can be shown that the resolution of the method can be improved by inverting this stimulus so that each polarization becomes a relaxation and vice versa. In order to generate, analyze and display this signal continuously, a device has been designed which has been called 'Electrophysiological Monitor, (E1M2)'. E1M2 provides a current stimulus as input into a standard bridge network and can analyze the summed response of the electrode and cell by a set of sample-hold amplifiers. It then decodes and displays the data continuously, as membrane potential (Em), input resistance of the cell (Rinp) and the electrode resistance (Re) respectively. From Rinp the membrane resistance (Rm) can be deduced. The validity of the method has been examined by measuring these parameters in frog muscle cells. Technical design considerations, the accuracy and possible pitfalls with the suggested procedure are discussed.