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J Neurophysiol 92: 380-386, 2004. First published March 3, 2004; doi:10.1152/jn.01238.2003
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A Direct Comparison of Whole Cell Patch and Sharp Electrodes by Simultaneous Recording From Single Spinal Neurons in Frog Tadpoles

W.-C. Li, S. R. Soffe and Alan Roberts

School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1UG, United Kingdom

Submitted 19 December 2003; accepted in final form 27 February 2004


    ABSTRACT
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 CONCLUSION
 GRANTS
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
 REFERENCES
 
High-impedance, sharp intracellular electrodes were compared with whole cell patch electrodes by recording from single spinal neurons in immobilized frog tadpoles. A range of neuron properties were examined using sharp or patch test electrodes while making simultaneous recordings with a second control patch electrode. Overall, test patch electrodes did not significantly alter the activity recorded by the control electrode, and recordings from the two electrodes were essentially identical. In contrast, sharp electrode recordings differed from initial control patch recordings. In some cases, differences were due to real changes in neuron properties: the resting membrane potential became less negative and the neuron input resistance (Ri) fell; this fall was larger for neurons with a higher Ri. In other cases, the control patch electrode revealed that differences were due to the recording properties of the sharp electrode: tip potentials were larger and more variable; resting potentials appeared to be more negative; and spike amplitude was attenuated. However, sharp electrode penetration did not, in most cases, significantly alter the pattern of neuron firing in response to injected current or the normal pattern of activity following sensory stimulation or during fictive swimming. We conclude that sharp electrodes introduce a significant leak to the membrane of tadpole spinal neurons compared with patch electrodes but that this does not change the fundamental firing characteristics or activity of the neurons.


    INTRODUCTION
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 CONCLUSION
 GRANTS
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
 REFERENCES
 
The whole cell recording technique rapidly took over from conventional sharp electrode intracellular recording in preparations of cultured cells and in vitro studies after its introduction in 1981 (Fenwick et al. 1982Go; Hamill et al. 1981Go). The whole cell technique is believed to result in less damage to the recorded cell and lead to a more faithful recording of the cell's electrical signals. However, recording from neurons in vivo with patch pipettes has proven to be quite a challenge, and sharp electrode recording is still being used. The advantages and disadvantages of both recording techniques have been extensively compared in single-electrode recordings or computer models (small model neurons, Ince et al. 1986Go; salamander olfactory neurons, Pongracz et al. 1991Go; hippocampus neurons, Staley et al. 1992Go; turtle spinal cord, Svirskis et al. 1997Go; rat spinal neurons, Thurbon et al. 1998Go). In some cases in recordings from small neurons, it has been suggested that the effects of recording with sharp electrodes could be so serious that researchers may draw radically different conclusions if the recordings were made with patch pipettes (Aiken et al. 2003Go; Dale 1995Go; Dale and Kuenzi 1997Go). To evaluate these concerns, a direct comparison of the two methods applied to neurons was required. The only previous direct comparison was made on cultured human monocytes (Ince et al. 1986Go).

In this study, we used two electrodes to record simultaneously from single neurons in the developing spinal cord in tadpoles of the frog Xenopus with two types of electrodes. This allowed us to directly compare the recordings made with a patch pipette in whole cell, current-clamp mode to those made with a sharp electrode. We did not carry out a detailed biophysical analysis but evaluated the effects of recording on some particular neuronal properties. Our aim was to see if the recording technique changed the neuron's resting properties or its firing activity both to injected current and during responses evoked by sensory stimulation.


    METHODS
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 CONCLUSION
 GRANTS
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
 REFERENCES
 
Details of the methods have been given recently (Li et al. 2002Go). Xenopus tadpoles at stage 37/38 (see Fig. 1A) were anesthetized with 0.1% MS-222 (3-aminobenzoic acid ester, Sigma, UK) and pinned in a small bath of saline (concentrations in mM: 115 NaCl, 3 KCl, 2 CaCl2, 2.4 NaHCO3, 1 MgCl2, and 10 HEPES, adjusted with 5 M NaOH to pH 7.4). The dorsal fin was cut, and the tadpole was transferred to 10 µM {alpha}-bungarotoxin saline for immobilization (20–30 min). It was re-pinned so that the skin and muscles over the right side of the spinal cord could be removed. A dorsal cut was made along the midline of the spinal cord to open the neurocoel and expose neuronal cell bodies. Some ependymal cells in the neurocoel were cut to expose more ventral neurons. The animal was then re-pinned on a small rotatable Sylgard stage in a 700-µl recording chamber that allowed bright-field illumination from below on an upright Nikon E600FN microscope. The animal was tilted to an angle that allowed partially exposed neuronal cell bodies on the right side of the cord to be seen using a 40x water immersion lens. Saline in the chamber was kept circulating at about 2 ml/min.



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FIG. 1. Preparation for simultaneous recordings from single tadpole neurons. A: immobilized tadpole preparation showing test and control patch electrodes in position to make contact with an exposed neuron on the cut open surface of the dorsal spinal cord. Also indicated are typical positions of suction electrodes for recording motor activity from a ventral root and for stimulating the tail skin. B: bright-field photograph of the right side of the spinal cord showing neuron somata exposed at the dorsal cut edge (between arrows) where a control patch and test sharp electrode record from a single soma. Dotted line indicates ventral edge of the spinal cord. C: bright-field photograph of a 2nd example where the test and control electrodes are both patch pipettes. Blue-light illumination shows feint fluorescence due to Alexa Fluor 488 filling of the recorded neuron soma. Diagrams below B and C show positions of electrodes and clear neuron somata. All somata contain small yolk platelets around their perimeters.

 
Patch pipettes were filled with 0.1% Alexa Fluor 488 (Molecular Probes) in intracellular solution (concentrations in mM: 100 K-gluconate, 2 MgCl2, 10 EGTA, 10 HEPES, 3 Na2ATP, and 0.5 NaGTP, adjusted to pH 7.3 with KOH) and had resistances of 10-20 M{Omega}. Fluorescent images were acquired using a Penguin 150 CLM camera (Pixera) with B-2A filter. Sharp electrodes were filled with 3 M KAC and had DC resistances of 150-180 M{Omega}. Electrodes were pulled on Brown-Flaming pullers (P-87 and P-97, Sutter Instruments) and manipulated with motor driven manipulators (SD Instruments). In each experiment, a whole cell recording in current-clamp mode was made first from the soma (~20 µm diam) to monitor the recording process. The second sharp electrode or patch pipette was brought up against the soma of the same neuron under visual guidance (800x magnification, Fig. 1) for impalement or gigaohm seal formation. A "tearing buzz" of 10 x 2 ms, 5-nA current pulses at 200 Hz was used after the tip of the electrode was pressed against soma membrane to achieve membrane penetration with sharp electrodes and break through after gigaohm seal formation with patch electrodes. Light positive pressure was always applied to the patch pipette solution before trying to get a seal. Each electrode was used only once.

A stimulating suction electrode was placed on the tail skin to apply 1-ms current pulses to start fictive swimming activity. Another suction electrode was placed usually on the 11th intermyotome cleft to record ventral root activity during evoked fictive swimming. Signals were recorded with an Axoclamp 2B amplifier in conventional bridge mode. Data were acquired with Signal software through a CED 1401 Plus (CED, Cambridge, UK) with a sampling rate of 10 kHz. Stimuli to the skin were controlled using the CED 1401 Plus configured by Signal and given via an optically coupled isolator. All means are given with their SD unless otherwise stated. Off-line analyses were made with Minitab and Excel. Photos were processed with Adobe Photoshop.

Dual sharp-patch recordings were made from 18 neurons (9 stable) and dual patch-patch recordings from 9 neurons (5 stable). Only those recordings with stable series resistances in the patch electrodes and stable resting membrane potentials (RMPs) in the sharp electrodes were used in the analyses. Stable, dual sharp-patch recordings lasted for 3-15 min. A paired Student's t-test was used to compare means unless stated otherwise. Experiments comply with UK Home Office regulations and have local ethical review approval.


    RESULTS
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 CONCLUSION
 GRANTS
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
 REFERENCES
 
To compare recordings made with patch electrodes and sharp microelectrodes (Fig. 1, B and C), a standard sequence of recordings was followed for each neuron. 1) Activity during swimming was recorded in cell-attached mode with a "control" patch-electrode (referred to simply as the control electrode). 2) The membrane was ruptured to allow whole cell recording with the control electrode (precontrol). 3) Simultaneous recording was established in the same neuron with a second "test" electrode: either a further patch electrode or a sharp microelectrode (referred to simply as the patch or sharp electrode). 4) Recording was continued with the control electrode after withdrawal/detachment of the test electrode (postcontrol). 5) The control electrode was finally detached. Under each condition (precontrol, simultaneous recording, and postcontrol), a series of tests was carried out to explore some particular features.

Effects of electrode penetration or breakthrough

As outlined above, the whole recording process for both sharp and patch test electrodes was monitored using a control whole cell patch pipette, applied first and detached last. Penetration of the cell membrane was always difficult with sharp electrodes (Fig. 2, AC). Very often, applying the tearing buzz only resulted in a small (~10–20 mV) negative shift in potential measured by the sharp electrode (Fig. 2A). The control electrode recording showed that these unsuccessful attempts at penetration caused the neuron to fire a burst of spikes followed by sustained depolarization of up to ~20 mV. This depolarization may have resulted from an influx of extracellular sodium ions, and recovery to the previous level could take >1 min. Successful penetrations that led to stable recordings (n = 9) often followed a larger initial negative jump in membrane potential in the sharp electrode (Fig. 2B). Sometimes (n = 3/9) the neurons fired a long train of action potentials following the tearing buzz while the membrane potential remained depolarized after the penetration (Fig. 2C). Following sharp electrode penetration, it usually took the membrane potential 1–2 min to reach a new stable level (–55.1 ± 3.2 mV), which was always more positive than the precontrol levels (–62.0 ± 4.9 mV), measured by the control electrode before sharp electrode penetration (P < 0.001, n = 9).



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FIG. 2. Neuronal membrane breakthrough process. A: an unsuccessful attempt at breakthrough with a sharp electrode causes the neuron to fire a burst of spikes during the tearing buzz and depolarizes the membrane potential recorded by the control patch electrode. B and C: 2 successful penetrations, but the resting membrane potential (RMP) only returns slowly toward its precontrol level. In C, the neuron fires a burst during the tearing buzz followed by a long train of spikes. D: with a patch test electrode, the tearing buzz leads to immediate breakthrough and a stable RMP in both electrodes. Dotted lines indicate the precontrol RMP level (control patch records) or the stable RMP level reached during test recording (sharp or patch test records). No correction for tip potential has been made.

 
In contrast to sharp electrode penetrations, a tearing buzz applied to a test patch pipette after formation of a gigaohm seal only caused the neuron to fire action potentials to each individual current pulse in the buzz. Also, in contrast to the effect of sharp electrode penetration, the cellular membrane potential in patch-patch recordings returned to its previous precontrol level rapidly, within 100 ms after the buzz (Fig. 2D; n = 5).

RMPs and tip potentials

It was immediately clear that the RMPs measured by sharp electrodes differed from those measured by the control electrode. The most likely explanation for this was differences in electrode tip potential. Tip potentials for sharp electrodes and patch pipettes (test and control) were zeroed before each electrode contacted a spinal neuron. After recording and subsequent electrode withdrawal or detachment, strong current pulses and/or brief capacitance overcompensation were used to clear both types of electrode to get a further, stable "final" tip potential reading. For control patch electrodes, tip potential did not change significantly (final difference, 0.5 ± 1.8 mV; range –1.4 to 4.7). However, in nine recordings with sharp test electrodes, final tip potentials changed by –14.0 ± 3.5 mV (range, –9.0 to –18.9 mV). These changes were significantly greater than those for control patch pipettes in the same recordings (P < 0.001) and suggested that sharp electrode measurements of neuronal RMP would be less reliable than those from patch electrodes.

Neuronal RMP measurements were made by taking the difference between the stable membrane potential, measured at a time when there was no obvious synaptic activity like swimming, and the final tip potential. RMPs measured from the control (patch) electrode after sharp electrode penetration were –55.1 ± 3.2 mV, showing that they fell from the precontrol value (–62.0 ± 4.9 mV). As expected from differences in tip potential stability, sharp electrode measurements of RMP differed from these control electrode values during simultaneous recordings. They were rather more negative: –61.4 ± 6.3 mV. We do not consider that there is any completely reliable method for measuring neuronal RMPs. However, the stability of measurements during paired patch electrode recordings make us confident that the reduction in resting potential measured by the control patch electrode following sharp electrode penetration was a real change.

Effects of electrodes on leakage resistance

One of the conclusions drawn in previous studies comparing whole cell and sharp recordings was that penetration with a sharp electrode introduced a significant leakage resistance across the membrane of the recorded cell (Dale 1995Go; Staley et al. 1992Go; Svirskis et al. 1997Go; Thurbon et al. 1998Go). We therefore used responses to subthreshold current pulses to plot I-V curves (Fig. 3, A and B) and calculate the cellular input resistance (Ri) during different stages of recording. The precontrol Ri for the nine neurons was 846 ± 527 M{Omega} (range, 262–1,963 M{Omega}). After the sharp electrode recordings had stabilized, Ris measured with the control patch pipette showed a significant 28.9 ± 11% decrease to 560 ± 275 M{Omega} (Fig. 3C; n = 9; P = 0.013). Of nine stable, simultaneous sharp-patch recordings, seven survived withdrawal of the sharp electrode. In these neurons, Ris recovered to 89.2 ± 12.9% (827 ± 453 M{Omega}) of the precontrol measurements (n = 7; P = 0.128). The leakage resistance (Rl) during sharp electrode impalement was calculated as an additional resistance in parallel with the membrane resistance (Rm) using the following equation: Rl–1 = Ri–1 Rm–1 (where Rm was equal to the value of Ri prior to sharp electrode impalement). Values ranged from 1.31 to 3.32 G{Omega} (1.95 ± 0.69 G{Omega}).



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FIG. 3. Changes in Ri resulting from test electrode recording. A: responses of a neuron to subthreshold current injection (levels indicated) measured with the control whole cell pipette before, during, and after sharp electrode recording from the same neuron. B: left: I-V relationship for the neuron in A. Right: I-V relationship for another neuron where the test electrode was a patch pipette. Closed symbols (circles and squares, black regression lines) indicate pre- and postcontrols; open circles (gray regression lines) show measurements made during simultaneous recording with the 2nd test electrode. C: summary of changes in Ri as a result of simultaneous recording with sharp and patch test electrodes. Ri only dropped significantly during recordings with sharp electrodes (*P < 0.05). Numbers of recordings are given in each column. D: reduction in Ri following sharp electrode penetration (open circles) is greater for neurons with a higher precontrol Ri. The much smaller reduction in Ri following patch electrode penetration (closed circles) does not show a significant relationship of this kind.

 
For simultaneous patch-patch recordings, Ri measured after the second test pipette went to whole cell also dropped by 3.7 ± 2.9% but not significantly (from 526 ± 354 M{Omega} to 502 ± 327 M{Omega}, n = 5; P = 0.173). It was often difficult to measure the additional leakage resistance in patch-patch recordings because, where Ri was already less than ~1 G{Omega}, the change in Ri was small and similar to the progressive change in series resistance (tens of M{Omega}s) that occurred during recordings. Nevertheless, estimates of leakage resistances of the test pipettes in four of five recordings gave relatively consistent values (9.9 ± 3.4 G{Omega}; range: 4.8-11.7 G{Omega}). After withdrawal of a test patch pipette, Ri recovered to 96.8 ± 7% (502 ± 329 M{Omega}) of its initial value (n = 5; P = 0.36).

As might be predicted from the relatively high value of the additional leak resistance during sharp electrode recording, the reduction in Ri following sharp electrode impalement was significantly greater for neurons with higher initial Ri than those with a lower Ri (Pearson correlation coefficient = 0.817, P = 0.007, Fig. 3D). Because of the much smaller change of Ri, a similar relationship was not obvious in patch-patch recordings (coefficient = 0.615, P = 0.269). The leak resistances were not correlated to initial Ri in either type of recordings (P = 0.197 for sharp-patch and P = 0.279 for patch-patch recordings).

Effects of recording on neuronal firing to current injection

It has been predicted that a consequence of the shunting effect of sharp electrode impalement will be a qualitative change in the firing properties of neurons (Dale 1995Go). We therefore looked at firing responses of neurons to depolarizing current injection. Since sharp electrode penetration led to a drop in Ri, the positive current needed to make neurons fire might be expected to increase after sharp electrode penetration. However, the RMP also became more positive during sharp electrode recording. Possibly as a result of this depolarization, the smallest current needed to make neurons fire spikes did not change significantly (from 94 ± 87 to 83 ± 69 pA, n = 7, P = 0.245). Before recording with the test electrode (sharp or patch), the 16 neurons recorded showed a range of firing responses to depolarizing current. These could be divided qualitatively into four main categories: a single spike only (n = 1), a brief burst of ≤6 spikes (n = 2), a train of spikes (Fig. 4A; n = 10), or a delayed train usually following a single spike (Fig. 4B; n = 3). In all seven cases where the test electrode was a second patch electrode, there was no qualitative change in the pattern of response (data not shown). In seven of the nine sharp electrode impalements, there was again no qualitative change in firing responses (Fig. 4). In the other two cases, there was a partial change: one from brief bursts to trains and the other from trains to brief bursts. There was usually a small quantitative change; firing frequencies to a given current were altered: sometimes increased and sometimes decreased (Fig. 4, C and D).



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FIG. 4. Sharp electrode recording does not change firing pattern to injected current. A: a neuron that fires a train of spikes to current injection before (35 pA), during (40 pA), and after (35 pA) sharp electrode recording. During simultaneous recording, injection of 40-pA current (indicated by gray bars) through the control patch pipette (bottom) or test sharp electrode (top) gives similar results. Note lower spike amplitude in the sharp-electrode recording. Following sharp electrode penetration, the drop in Ri for this neuron was 37.3% from 1.02 G{Omega} (leakage resistance: 1.71 G{Omega}) and the RMP became 2 mV less negative. B: a less excitable neuron firing a delayed train of spikes to stronger current both before (patch) and during simultaneous sharp electrode recording (sharp + patch). Drop in Ri for this neuron was 19.6% from 262 M{Omega} (leakage resistance: 1.08 G{Omega}) and the RMP was 7.4 mV less negative after sharp electrode penetration. C: spike frequencies of 4 repetitive-firing neurons to current injection before (black lines) and during (gray lines) sharp electrode recording; all frequencies were measured by the control patch electrode. For each neuron, the same current levels were used before and during sharp electrode penetration, and for clarity, relationships are indicated by regression lines. D: firing frequency of the neuron in B to current injections before (filled diamonds) and during (open diamonds) sharp electrode recording.

 
Spikes recorded with sharp electrodes were clearly attenuated relative to those recorded simultaneously with control patch electrodes (Fig. 4A). For the patch recordings, spike peak potential and spike amplitude (measured from peak to afterhyperpolarization) could both vary during an experiment. Overall, however, neither measure changed significantly during or following sharp electrode penetration (spike peak potential: precontrol, +28.1 ± 9.5 mV; test, +27.2 ± 9.8 mV; postcontrol, +27.0 ± 10.4 mV; spike amplitude: precontrol, 71.0 ± 10.2 mV; test, 70.2 ± 11.4 mV; postcontrol, 68.7 ± 12.8 mV; both P > 0.4, ANOVA; all measured for just-superthreshold currents; n = 8 neurons). In contrast, the same test spikes recorded with sharp electrodes reached a significantly lower peak potential and had a 29-63% lower amplitude (spike peak potential: –20.9 ± 13.3 mV and spike amplitude: 39.3 ± 12.1 mV; both P < 0.001, n = 8). The consistency of the patch electrode measurements showed that this attenuation of the sharp electrode recordings was not primarily due to a real change in spike size. However, to avoid possible voltage errors produced when current was injected through the recording electrode (resulting from changes in series resistance, for example) synaptically evoked spikes were also compared following tail skin stimulation or during fictive swimming (see next section).

Effects of recording method on spiking activity during fictive motor responses

To assess the effects of the recording technique on the normal activity of spinal neurons, we looked at eight neurons showing clear synaptic activity during fictive swimming, evoked when the tail skin was stimulated with a 1-ms electrical pulse (cf. Li et al. 2002Go). Before going whole cell with the control patch electrode, we recorded activity in cell-attached mode (n = 8). These extracellular recordings provide the best available control of the normal pattern of firing activity for individual neurons during swimming: because the neuron membrane remains intact, trans-membrane chemical gradients will therefore not be perturbed as in either whole cell mode or sharp electrode intracellular mode.

We have shown previously that the whole cell recording does not change the firing pattern of neurons during swimming (Li et al. 2002Go). We now asked whether neurons tended to fire less reliably after test electrode (sharp or patch) penetration. Of the eight neurons recorded, five were sensory interneurons, which only fired action potentials shortly after skin stimulation before swimming started (Clarke and Roberts 1984Go; Li et al. 2003Go; Sillar and Roberts 1988Go), and three were premotor neurons, which fired rhythmically during swimming. During simultaneous sharp-patch recording, the pattern of neuron firing following skin stimulation or during swimming appeared to remain unchanged throughout the whole recording processes (Fig. 5A). The reliability of firing was tested in sensory interneurons by counting the number of spikes to a series of >10 equal-strength skin stimuli, or, in CPG neurons, by measuring the percentage of swimming cycles with spikes in >200 cycles at equivalent frequencies. When these measures were compared in four sensory pathway interneurons and three CPG neurons before and after sharp electrode penetration, firing reliability was not changed significantly (F test, P > 0.05). In the remaining sensory interneuron, firing reliability was increased (F test, P < 0.05). Similar results were observed where the second, test electrode was a patch pipette (n = 5 CPG neurons; data not shown). These results suggest that sharp electrodes give as accurate a picture of firing patterns during fictive motor responses such as swimming as whole cell patch electrodes.



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FIG. 5. Recording neuronal activity in response to tail skin stimulation. A: during fictive swimming shown in the ventral root recording (vr), (top) neuron spike activity was recorded with a test patch electrode in cell-attached mode. Other traces show recordings of the same neuron's activity: precontrol, with the patch electrode now whole cell; during test, after additional insertion of the sharp electrode; and postcontrol, after withdrawing the sharp electrode. Dotted lines indicate the RMP level in each recording. Drop in Ri for this neuron was 22.4% from 956 M{Omega} (leakage resistance: 3.32 G{Omega}) and the RMP became 6.3 mV less negative after sharp electrode penetration. B: differences in the high-frequency response of a sharp electrode (dotted line) and a patch electrode (solid line) are clear during fictive swimming (vr) when traces are superimposed. A faster time scale (inset) shows attenuation of the spike recorded by the sharp electrode. Skin was stimulated at the small arrow. C: similar recordings as in B, but the test electrode is a patch pipette. Here the recordings from test and control electrodes are indistinguishable.

 
One of the most striking features of the simultaneous recordings was that spikes recorded with sharp electrodes following skin stimulation and during swimming (as during current injection) were smaller and more variable in amplitude (peak amplitude 47.49 ± 10.64 mV) than those recorded with patch electrodes (78.24 ± 7.22; n = 6 neurons; P < 0.001, Figs. 5, A and B). In general, when the sharp recordings were superimposed on their control patch recording, the qualitative match was good, with the same spike and synaptic features clearly recognizable by their timing. Some regions of the sharp electrode signal were slightly attenuated relative to the equivalent patch recording (Fig. 5B), but by far the greatest mismatch was in the spikes. In six recordings with a test sharp electrode, only two neurons had overshooting spikes (peak values, +4.91 and +11.68 mV, measured from the RMP level recorded from the control patch pipette). In recordings with test patch electrodes, however, all spikes were overshooting (by 23.6 ± 7.98 mV; range, +13.23 to +34.24 mV), and the signals from both control and test patch electrodes could be superimposed and were almost exactly the same in size and shape (Fig. 5C). We conclude that the differences in the form of the sharp electrode recordings, in particular, the reduced spike amplitude, are a result of limitations in the recording system, in particular, an inadequate high-frequency response, and not damage to the neuron.


    DISCUSSION
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 CONCLUSION
 GRANTS
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
 REFERENCES
 
One of the frustrations of making difficult sharp microelectrode recordings from small neurons was that there seemed to be no way to establish whether the recording led to damage that degraded the properties and responses of the neurons. In the case of the Xenopus tadpole, recordings from spinal neurons have always been hard to obtain, have required the use of high-impedance electrodes (>150 M{Omega}), but once obtained, have often been stable for long periods (>60 min) (Soffe and Roberts 1982Go). Our present methods allow simultaneous whole cell and sharp electrode recording from the somata of single spinal neurons that can be seen at 800x magnification with bright-field illumination after the spinal cord is opened along the dorsal midline (Li et al. 2002Go, 2003). This has made it possible for us to examine the effects of sharp electrode recording directly.

By monitoring the whole recording process with our control whole cell patch electrode, we were able to judge the extent to which a further sharp or patch electrode penetration altered the neuron's properties and responses. Going whole cell with a second patch electrode led to very little change, but sharp electrode penetration led to depolarization (Ince et al. 1986Go), sometimes with injury discharge. The RMP could take minutes to recover and stabilize. The membrane damage produced by the sharp electrodes was measured as a 20–40% drop in input resistance compared with an insignificant drop of 0.8–6.6% with a patch electrode. The effect of the shunt or leakage resistance (1.3–2.6 G{Omega}) introduced by the sharp electrode appeared to be larger in neurons with higher Ri, which are presumably smaller. These results give direct support for earlier studies that often used models of recorded neurons and concluded from sequential comparison of sharp and whole cell recordings that the sharp recordings caused a leakage resistance to appear in the neuron membrane (Cymbalyuk et al. 2002Go; Dale 1995Go; Staley et al. 1992Go; Svirskis et al. 1997Go; Thurbon et al. 1998Go). It has been pointed out (Jack 1979Go; Pongracz et al. 1991Go) that the leakage introduced by sharp electrodes may be trivial in large mammal motoneurons with low Ri (0.6 M{Omega}) but is likely to be significant in smaller neurons with high Ri such as those in the olfactory bulb (2–5 G{Omega}) or tadpole spinal cord (0.2–2 G{Omega}; this study).

Other problems associated with sharp electrode recordings from smaller neurons come from the need to use fine electrodes with high resistances (150–180 M{Omega}) to obtain stable recordings. While tip potential and capacitance can be compensated before recording, there can be no certainty that these properties do not change when the electrode tip is inside the neuron. Large tip potentials have to reduce confidence in measures of resting potentials with sharp electrodes, but there may also be problems with low-resistance whole cell patch recordings (Verheugen et al. 1999Go). In both cases, the pipette solution is in contact with the cell interior, so dialysis may alter cytoplasm ionic composition and in this way change the resting potential. The effects of inadequate compensation for the capacitance of fine sharp electrodes is another problem that became obvious during simultaneous sharp-patch recordings of spiking activity (Fig. 4). The overshooting impulses recorded by the whole cell electrode were recorded at a much lower, often non-overshooting, amplitude by the sharp electrode. Although the reduced spike height could have been due to a leakage resistance (Dale 1995Go), these recordings show that large spikes are still present after sharp electrode penetration, suggesting that they are attenuated by the low-pass filtering of the sharp electrode, rather than by damage. Despite following "standard practice," where the frequency response of sharp electrodes appeared adequate before impalement, our results show that capacitance neutralization was clearly not adequately achieved during impalement.

If sharp electrodes produce a 20–40% drop in neuron input resistance, one might expect the neuron's firing properties and activity following sensory stimulation to be changed. We compared recordings of responses to skin stimulation after penetration with a second sharp or patch electrode and did not observe any consistent differences. As for firing properties, it has been argued that damage during sharp electrode recording leads to Xenopus tadpole spinal neurons being less excitable and only firing once to current injection (Aiken et al. 2003Go; Dale 1995Go). However, some neurons recorded with sharp electrodes can fire repetitively to depolarizing current (Roberts and Sillar 1990Go; Soffe 1990Go), and some neurons recorded with whole cell patch electrodes only fire single impulses (Dale 1991Go). When we looked at the firing responses of neurons to injected current, we found a number of different firing patterns from single spikes to trains, such as those described recently by Aiken et al. (2003)Go and in our own large sample of single patch-electrode recordings (unpublished data). After sharp-electrode penetration, slightly more current was required to evoke the same pattern of spikes, but apart from this, the neurons' firing responses appeared to be largely unchanged. Observations of firing activity recorded using the two types of electrode from the same neurons give us confidence that the firing activity described on the basis of sharp electrode recordings from many types of smaller neuron may be valid.

Does any discrepancy still exist over reported firing patterns in Xenopus tadpole spinal neurons? There is clearly agreement that neurons active during swimming and recorded with whole cell patch electrodes can show repetitive firing to injected current (Fig. 4; Aiken et al. 2003Go; Li et al. 2002Go). Since we have concluded that sharp electrode recordings give a reliable record of firing activity, we would predict that patch recordings, like earlier sharp electrode recordings (Soffe 1990Go), would reveal more ventral neurons that fire only once to injected current. From our estimates of the degree of membrane shunting following sharp electrode impalement and earlier sharp electrode measurements of input resistance, we also predict that they have relatively low input resistances. It may be that Aiken et al. (2003)Go did not describe such single impulse firing either because of the greater difficulty of recording more ventral neurons with patch electrodes or because they rejected all recordings with input resistances <500 M{Omega}. Further recordings will be required to resolve this issue.


    CONCLUSION
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 CONCLUSION
 GRANTS
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
 REFERENCES
 
Simultaneous recordings with two whole cell patch electrodes show how little disturbance this method of recording causes to the recorded neuron. In contrast, similar simultaneous recordings show that penetration with a sharp electrode damages the membrane and leads to depolarization. In successful sharp electrode recordings, the membrane potential stabilizes with a permanent shunt or leakage resistance in parallel with the neuron's resting input resistance. In combination, these changes alter the current levels needed to produce spike firing but do not change the neuron's characteristic pattern of firing, which is presumed to depend on the membrane channels that it expresses. High resistance sharp electrodes also attenuate fast responses such as spikes because their low-pass filtering characteristics cannot be adequately compensated. While high resistance sharp electrodes appear to provide a less faithful recording of neuronal responses than patch electrodes, they do not significantly alter the main qualitative features of these responses in tadpole neurons. In particular, they do not appear to change firing behavior, and they give good recordings of slower potential transients like synaptic potentials. They are therefore still a very useful tool for study of neuronal activity patterns, particularly in situations where it is important to keep the nervous system intact rather than studying parts of it in slice preparations.


    GRANTS
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 CONCLUSION
 GRANTS
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
 REFERENCES
 
This study was supported by the Wellcome Trust.


    ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 CONCLUSION
 GRANTS
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
 REFERENCES
 
We thank J. Maxwell and T. Colborn for expert technical assistance.


    FOOTNOTES
 
The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. The article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.

Address for reprint requests and other correspondence: W.-C. Li, School of Biological Sciences, Univ. of Bristol, Woodland Rd., Bristol BS8 1UG, UK (E-mail: wenchang.li{at}bristol.ac.uk).


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 INTRODUCTION
 METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 CONCLUSION
 GRANTS
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
 REFERENCES
 
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