Simultaneous recording of cell volume, membrane current and membrane potential: effect of hypotonic shock

✍ Scribed by Joachim Ubl; Heini Murer; Hans -Albert Kolb

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1989
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 251 KB
• Volume: 415
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0031-6768
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00370891

✦ Synopsis

Using the slow whole-cell recording technique (Horn & Marty 1988), we measured the change of membrane current and potential induced by a hypotonic shock, while simultaneously monitoring the cell size. A transient depolarization could be measured which was accompanied by a transient change of the membrane current. The maximal cell size was reached before the depolarization and the current adopted their maximal values. Volume 2 regulatory decrease could also be observed in Ca +-free hypotonic bath solutions, but the time course of cell shrinking as well as the change of membrane current and potential was slowed down.

In contrast, a regulatory volume decrease could not be observed in whole-cell records and the cell size steadily increased. The data show that the slow whole-cell recording technique is suitable for analysis of ion transport systems involved in volume regulation.