29 THE 4TH ANNUAL IEEE INTERnational Conference on Nano/Microengineered Molecular Systems (IEEE-NEMS) was held at the Sheraton Dameisha Resort in Shenzhen, China, 5–8 January 2009. More than 300 papers were presented by leading micro/nanotechnology researchers in academia and industry from around the globe. Topical areas of the conference included microelectro mechanical systems (MEMS), BioMEMS...

Extracellular ATP affects a wide variety of cells via purinergic membrane receptors. One class of purinergic receptors, P2X, consists of ATP-gated, calcium-permeable, cation-selective channels. We performed whole cell patch-clamp studies, intracellular calcium concentration ([Ca2+]i) measurements, and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to determine whether P2X receptors ar...

UNLABELLED Whole-cell patch-clamp recordings in rat cerebellar slices were used to investigate the effect of metabotropic glutamate receptor activation on mossy fibre-granule cell synaptic transmission. Transient application of 20 microM 1S, 3R-aminocyclopentane-1, 3-dicarboxylic acid simultaneously with low-frequency NMDA receptor activation induced long-lasting non-decremental potentiation of...

objective: resveratrol, a phytoalexin, has a wide range of desirable biological actions. despite a growing body of evidence indicating that resveratrol induces changes in neuronal function, little effort, if any, has been made to investigate the cellular effect of resveratrol treatment on intrinsic neuronal properties. materials and methods: this experimental study was performed to examine the ...

The mechanism by which the beta-adrenergic agonist isoproterenol (ISO) modulates voltage-dependent cardiac Na+ currents (INa) was studied in single ventricular myocytes of neonatal rat using the gigaseal patch-clamp technique. ISO inhibited INa reversibly, making the effect readily distinguishable from the monotonic decrease of INa caused by the shift in gating that customarily occurs during wh...

Electrophysiological events occur early after fertilization, along with changes in intracellular Ca2+ concentration. Passive electrical parameters were determined in golden hamster oocytes by whole cell patch-clamp method. In separate experiments the effect of 4-aminopyridine on resting oocytes was tested. The single-channel patch clamp configuration was employed to assess the electrical respon...

The leaner (tgla) mutation in mice results in severe ataxia and an overt neurodegeneration of the cerebellum. Positional cloning has revealed that the tgla mutation occurs in a gene encoding the voltage-activated calcium channel alpha1A subunit. The alpha1A subunit is highly expressed in the cerebellum and is thought to be the pore-forming subunit of P- and Q-type calcium channels. In this stud...

Whole cell patch-clamp recordings were used to investigate the properties of the gamma-aminobutyric acid type A (GABAA) receptor-mediated spontaneous synaptic events in immature granule cells of the developing, early postnatal day (P0-P6) rat dentate gyrus. With Cs-gluconate-filled whole cell patch pipettes at 0 mV in control medium, spontaneous inhibitory postsynaptic currents (sIPSCs) occurre...

A preliminary result supports the feasibility of using visible light to modulate the membrane potential of a cell. Human embryonic kidney cells (HEK293) were transfected with vertebrate rhodopsin and a gradient inward rectifying potassium (GIRK) channel. Whole cell patch clamp recordings of HEK293 cells exposed to 9-cis retinal showed that illumination increases the potassium current compared w...

OBJECTIVE Paracrine signaling via gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and GABA(A) receptors (GABA(A)Rs) has been documented in rodent islets. Here we have studied the importance of GABAergic signaling in human pancreatic islets. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Expression of GABA(A)Rs in islet cells was investigated by quantitative PCR, immunohistochemistry, and patch-clamp experiments. Hormone release...