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PMID: 1706951 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Nonstationary fluctuation analysis and direct resolution of single channel currents at postsynaptic sites.

Biophysical journal ·Vol. 59 ·No. 2 ·1991-02-00 ·Pages 295-304

Robinson HP, Sahara Y, Kawai N

Abstract

In order to measure unitary properties of receptor channels at the postsynaptic site, the noise within the decay phases of inhibitory postsynaptic currents (IPSCs) and of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA)-dependent excitatory postsynaptic currents (EPSCs) in rat hippocampal neurons was studied by nonstationary fluctuation analysis. Least squares scaling of the mean current was used to circumvent the wide variation in amplitude of postsynaptic currents. The variance of fluctuations around the expected current was analyzed to calculate single channel conductance, and fluctuation kinetics were studied with power spectra. The single channel conductance underlying the IPSC was measured as 14 pS, whereas that underlying the EPSC was 42 pS. Openings of the EPSC channel could also be resolved directly in low-noise whole-cell recordings, allowing verification of the accuracy of the fluctuation analysis. The results are the first measurements of the properties of single postsynaptic channels activated during synaptic currents, and suggest that the technique can be widely applicable in investigations of synaptic mechanism and plasticity.

MeSH Terms
2-Amino-5-phosphonovalerate/pharmacology 6-Cyano-7-nitroquinoxaline-2,3-dione Animals Cells, Cultured Electric Conductivity Electrophysiology/methods Evoked Potentials/drug effects Hippocampus/physiology Ion Channels/drug effects,physiology Kinetics N-Methylaspartate/pharmacology Neurons/physiology Quinoxalines/pharmacology Rats Synapses/drug effects,physiology
Chemicals
Ion Channels Quinoxalines N-Methylaspartate 6-Cyano-7-nitroquinoxaline-2,3-dione 2-Amino-5-phosphonovalerate
Authors & Affiliations
3 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Robinson H P
Department of Neurobiology, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute for Neurosciences, Japan.
Sahara Y
Kawai N
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Article Info
Journal
Biophysical journal
Abbr.
Biophys J
ISSN
0006-3495
DOI
10.1016/S0006-3495(91)82223-8
Published
1991-02-00
Pages
295-304
Language
English
Region
United States
NLM ID
0370626
PMCID
PMC1281146
Subset
IM
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1016/S0006-3495(91)82223-8 PMC Full Text View journal details
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