Chemically Induced ION Channels in Nerve Cell Membranes

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses how application of fluctuation analysis, voltage-jump relaxation, and extracellular patch-clamp methods has increased knowledge of the action of agonists and other drugs at the membrane of nerve cells from both vertebrate and invertebrate preparations. Considerable technical problems exist in the application of the new biophysical methods to the study of transmitter actions on neurons in the intact vertebrate central nervous system (CNS). In the case of fluctuation analysis and voltage-jump relaxations, control of membrane voltage at higher frequencies may be difficult to achieve in nerve cells with complex geometries. A number of transmitter substances appear to utilize ion-permeable channels to induce a charge transfer across the postsynaptic membrane. It seems probable, then, that all three biophysical methods will be required to probe the action of putative transmitters on neurons in the intact vertebrate CNS. Within a few years, the elementary events induced by some transmitters in mammalian CNS neurons will become amenable to study without the need for cell dissociation and culture methods. This achievement will realize one of the long-standing goals of cellular neurobiology.