Stern Shani, Rotem Assaf, Burnishev Yuri, Weinreb Eyal, Moses Elisha
Laboratory of Genetics, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies.
Department of Physics and SEAS, Harvard University.
J Vis Exp. 2017 May 7(123):54357. doi: 10.3791/54357.
A neuron will fire an action potential when its membrane potential exceeds a certain threshold. In typical activity of the brain, this occurs as a result of chemical inputs to its synapses. However, neurons can also be excited by an imposed electric field. In particular, recent clinical applications activate neurons by creating an electric field externally. It is therefore of interest to investigate how the neuron responds to the external field and what causes the action potential. Fortunately, precise and controlled application of an external electric field is possible for embryonic neuronal cells that are excised, dissociated and grown in cultures. This allows the investigation of these questions in a highly reproducible system. In this paper some of the techniques used for controlled application of external electric field on neuronal cultures are reviewed. The networks can be either one dimensional, i.e. patterned in linear forms or allowed to grow on the whole plane of the substrate, and thus two dimensional. Furthermore, the excitation can be created by the direct application of electric field via electrodes immersed in the fluid (bath electrodes) or by inducing the electric field using the remote creation of magnetic pulses.
当神经元的膜电位超过一定阈值时，它就会产生动作电位。在大脑的典型活动中，这是其突触化学输入的结果。然而，神经元也可以被外加电场激发。特别是，最近的临床应用通过外部产生电场来激活神经元。因此，研究神经元如何对外加电场作出反应以及是什么导致动作电位是很有意义的。幸运的是，对于从胚胎中取出、解离并在培养物中生长的神经元细胞，可以精确且可控地施加外部电场。这使得在高度可重复的系统中研究这些问题成为可能。本文综述了一些用于在神经元培养物上可控施加外部电场的技术。网络可以是一维的，即以线性形式排列，或者允许在底物的整个平面上生长，从而形成二维结构。此外，激发可以通过将电极浸入流体中（浴电极）直接施加电场来产生，或者通过远程产生磁脉冲来感应电场来实现。
