A patch clamp system for cell-attached recordings from crayfish giant axons

Abstract

A patch-clamping system consisting of a computer controlled pA amplifier and signal averager was designed to measure currents through single ionic channels. Techniques were established for reliable micropipette (tip 0.0. <2μ) manufacture and tungsten microelectrode use in patch-clamping. Attempts were made to measure single channel currents in giant axons of crayfish (Orconectes). These were unsuccessful due to a failure to establish GΩ seals between the pipette and the plasma membrane. The failure is attributed to unclean plasma membrane surface (it was not digested with proteolytic enzymes).