Effects of Chemosensory Stimulation Membrane Currents Recorded with the Perforated-Patch Method from Cultured Rat Glomus Cells

We are using primary cultures of dissociated cells from the rat carotid body to study chemotransduction mechanisms. A major focus has been the electrophysiological characterization of the glomus (or type 1) cells which are the presumed sensors of the chemosensory stimuli, hypoxia, hypercapnia, and acidity (Biscoe and Duchen 1990; Lopez-Barneo et al 1988; Stea and Nurse 1991a; etc.). Using the giga-seal patch-clamp technique (Hamill et al 1981) we have determined that cultured rat glomus cells have membrane currents similar to those found in freshly-isolated rabbit glomus cells (Duchen et al 1988; Lopez-Lopez et al 1989; Hescheler et al 1989; see also, Peers 1990). The implementation of the novel perforated-patch recording method (Horn and Marty 1988) in many of our studies has circumvented problems associated with conventional whole cell recording such as washout of important cytoplasmic constituents, and rapid deterioration of the preparation.