Visually guided whole cell patch clamp of mouse supraoptic nucleus neurons in cultured and acute conditions.

Recent advances in neuronal culturing techniques have supplied a new set of tools for studying neural tissue, providing effective means to study molecular aspects of regulatory elements in the supraoptic nucleus of the hypothalamus (SON). To combine molecular biology techniques with electrophysiological recording, we modified an organotypic culture protocol to permit transfection and whole cell patch-clamp recordings from SON cells. Neonatal mouse brain coronal sections containing the SON were dissected out, placed on a filter insert in culture medium, and incubated for at least 4 days to allow attachment to the insert. The SON was identifiable using gross anatomical landmarks, which remained intact throughout the culturing period. Immunohistochemical staining identified both vasopressinergic and oxytocinergic cells present in the cultures, typically appearing in well-defined clusters. Whole cell recordings from these cultures demonstrated that certain properties of the neonatal mouse SON were comparable to adult mouse magnocellular neurons. SON neurons in both neonatal cultures and acute adult slices showed similar sustained outward rectification above -60 mV and action potential broadening during evoked activity. Membrane potential, input resistance, and rapidly inactivating potassium current density (IA) were reduced in the cultures, whereas whole cell capacitance and spontaneous synaptic excitation were increased, perhaps reflecting developmental changes in cell physiology that warrant further study. The use of the outlined organotypic culturing procedures will allow the study of such electrophysiological properties of mouse SON using whole cell patch-clamp, in addition to various molecular, techniques that require longer incubation times.