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Planar patch‐clamp on synoviocytes from rheumatoid arthritic joints
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.22.1_supplement.937.31
Subject(s) - patch clamp , clamp , ion channel , biomedical engineering , computer science , throughput , materials science , nanotechnology , chemistry , electrophysiology , clamping , engineering , neuroscience , medicine , biology , telecommunications , receptor , wireless , computer vision
Patch clamp is still accepted as the best technique for precise and direct characterization of ion channel properties. The development of automated planar patch‐clamp technologies overcomes the problems of low throughput, laborious, manual processing associated with conventional patch‐clamping techniques. Our Patchliners Octo and Quattro (Nanion Technologies GmbH) are robotic multi‐channel patch clamp systems that enable recordings with increased throughput capabilities. They utilise planar glass chips embedded in a micro‐fluidic perfusion system for rapid solution exchange. Protocols have been developed for cell lines, but we were also interested in the potential benefits for studies of endogenous channels of primary cells. We find that routine giga‐seals and whole‐cell recordings can be obtained with various primary cell types. One such cell type is the CD55‐positive fibroblast‐like synoviocytes, which have previously proved difficult to patch‐clamp by conventional methodology. The success rate in producing high quality recordings, maintained for 10 min, was surprisingly greater than for conventional patch‐clamp methodology (~70 % compared with <10 %). The results suggest there is potential for automated planar patch‐clamp devices in the study of ionic currents through channel proteins of primary cells. The research is funded by the Wellcome Trust and we thank Nanion for customer support.