title: Whole-cell patch-clamp electrophysiology of voltage-sensitive channels.
abstract: Ion channels are critical modulators of electrical excitability in neurons and are targets of a wide variety of neurotoxicants, including metals and insecticides. The only way to directly examine effects of toxicants on ion channel function in an individual cell on a physiologically relevant time scale is to utilize patch-clamp electrophysiological techniques. This unit presents the basics of utilizing whole-cell patch-clamp techniques to study effects of toxicants on voltage-sensitive Ca(2+) channels in neurons grown in culture.
authors.affiliation: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Timothy J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Shafer
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015220:Calcium Channels / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D015640:Ion Channel Gating; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D018408:Patch-Clamp Techniques
chemical_list: D015220:Calcium Channels