Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade do Algarve, Faro, Portugal.
Instituto de Telecomunicações, Lisboa, Portugal.
Front Neural Circuits. 2017 Oct 23;11:80. doi: 10.3389/fncir.2017.00080. eCollection 2017.
Astrocytes are neuroglial cells that exhibit functional electrical properties sensitive to neuronal activity and capable of modulating neurotransmission. Thus, electrophysiological recordings of astroglial activity are very attractive to study the dynamics of glial signaling. This contribution reports on the use of ultra-sensitive planar electrodes combined with low noise and low frequency amplifiers that enable the detection of extracellular signals produced by primary cultures of astrocytes isolated from mouse cerebral cortex. Recorded activity is characterized by spontaneous bursts comprised of discrete signals with pronounced changes on the signal rate and amplitude. Weak and sporadic signals become synchronized and evolve with time to higher amplitude signals with a quasi-periodic behavior, revealing a cooperative signaling process. The methodology presented herewith enables the study of ionic fluctuations of population of cells, complementing the single cells observation by calcium imaging as well as by patch-clamp techniques.
星形胶质细胞是神经胶质细胞，具有对神经元活动敏感的功能电特性，并能够调节神经递质的传递。因此，星形胶质细胞活性的电生理记录非常吸引人，可以用来研究神经胶质信号的动态。本贡献报告了使用超灵敏的平面电极结合低噪声和低频率放大器的情况，这些电极和放大器能够检测从小鼠大脑皮层分离的原代培养星形胶质细胞产生的细胞外信号。记录的活动以自发爆发为特征，自发爆发由离散信号组成，信号速率和幅度有明显变化。弱的和零星的信号变得同步，并随时间演变到具有准周期性行为的更高幅度的信号，显示出一种协作的信号传递过程。本文所提出的方法学能够研究细胞群体的离子波动，通过钙成像以及膜片钳技术补充对单个细胞的观察。
