Pelzer D, Trautwein W
II. Physiologisches Institut, Medizinische Fakultät, Universität des Saarlandes, Homburg, Federal Republic of Germany.
Experientia. 1987 Dec 1;43(11-12):1153-62. doi: 10.1007/BF01945515.
Ionic channels are elementary excitable elements in the cell membranes of heart and other tissues. They produce and transduce electrical signals. After decades of trouble with quantitative interpretation of voltage-clamp data from multicellular heart tissue, due to its morphological complexness and methodological limitations, cardiac electrophysiologists have developed new techniques for better control of membrane potential and of the ionic and metabolic environment on both sides of the plasma membrane, by the use of single heart cells. Direct recordings of the behavior of single ionic channels have become possible by using the patch-clamp technique, which was developed simultaneously. Biochemists have made excellent progress in purifying and characterizing ionic channel proteins, and there has been initial success in reconstituting some partially purified channels into lipid bilayers, where their function can be studied.
离子通道是心脏和其他组织细胞膜中的基本可兴奋元件。它们产生并传导电信号。由于多细胞心脏组织形态复杂且方法存在局限性，心脏电生理学家在对其电压钳数据进行定量解释方面困扰了数十年，之后他们通过使用单个心脏细胞开发了新技术，以更好地控制质膜两侧的膜电位以及离子和代谢环境。利用同时开发的膜片钳技术，可以直接记录单个离子通道的行为。生物化学家在纯化和表征离子通道蛋白方面取得了显著进展，并且在将一些部分纯化的通道重构到脂质双层中方面也取得了初步成功，在脂质双层中可以研究它们的功能。
