Electrophysiology
Scanning ion conductance microscopy can be used to perform 'smart' patch-clamp electrophysiology studies on living cells. The diagram below shows how a region for scanning is selected using optical microscopy, the system can then zoom into a region of interest to locate a specific feature of interest. In this case, a single micro-villus was chosen, a giga-seal formed, and subsequent electrophysiology measurements on a small cluster of ion channels were made¹.
The following 3 images show the dynamics of ion channel activity of a small cluster of ion channels on a cell surface². The time between each scan is 12 minutes.
¹ Gu, Y., J. Gorelik, et al. (2002). "High-resolution scanning patch-clamp: new insights into cell function." Faseb J 16(7): 748-50.
² Korchev, Y. E., Y. A. Negulyaev, et al. (2000). "Functional localization of single active ion channels on the surface of a living cell." Nat Cell Biol 2(9): 616-9.
