Protein Pretreatment of Microelectrodes Enables in Vivo Electrochemical Measurements with Easy Precalibration and Interference-Free from Proteins.
In vivo electrochemistry is one powerful strategy for probing brain chemistry. However, the decreases in sensitivity mainly caused by the adsorption of proteins onto electrode surface in short-term in vivo measurements unfortunately render great challenges in both electrode calibration and selectivity against the alternation of proteins. In this study, we observe that the pretreatment of carbon fiber microelectrodes (CFEs) with bovine serum albumin (BSA) would offer a simple but effective strategy to the challenges mentioned above. We verify our strategy for dopamine (DA) with conventionally used CFEs and for ascorbate with our previously developed carbon nanotube-modified CFEs. We find that, in artificial cerebral spinal fluid (aCSF) solution containing BSA, the current responses of the microelectrodes equilibrate shortly and the results for precalibration carried out in this solution are found to be almost the same as those for the postcalibration in pure aCSF. This observation offers a new solution to electrode calibration for in vivo measurements with a technical simplicity. Furthermore, we find that the use of BSA pretreated CFEs to replace bare CFEs would minimize the interference from the alternation of proteins in the brain. This study offers a new general and effective approach to in vivo electrochemistry with a high reliability and a simplified procedure.
Department of Chemistry, Renmin University of China , Beijing 100872, China.
Xiaomeng
X
Liu
Department of Chemistry, Renmin University of China , Beijing 100872, China.
Meining
M
Zhang
Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Living Biosystems, Institute of Chemistry, The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) , Beijing 100190, China.
Tongfang
T
Xiao
Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Living Biosystems, Institute of Chemistry, The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) , Beijing 100190, China.
Jie
J
Hao
Department of Chemistry, Renmin University of China , Beijing 100872, China.
Ruixin
R
Li
Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Living Biosystems, Institute of Chemistry, The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) , Beijing 100190, China.
Lanqun
L
Mao
D000818:Animals; D001205:Ascorbic Acid / Q000032:analysis; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism; D002138:Calibration; D002244:Carbon / Q000737:chemistry; D000077482:Carbon Fiber; D004298:Dopamine / Q000032:analysis* / Q000592:standards; D055664:Electrochemical Techniques / Q000592:standards; D004567:Electrodes, Implanted; D008297:Male; D008839:Microelectrodes; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012710:Serum Albumin, Bovine / Q000737:chemistry*
D000077482:Carbon Fiber; D012710:Serum Albumin, Bovine; D002244:Carbon; D001205:Ascorbic Acid; D004298:Dopamine