Developmental regulation of ion channels and receptors on glial cells.

The electrophysiological properties of glial precursor cells and oligodendrocytes were studied in an intact tissue preparation, the corpus callosum slice, with the patch-clamp technique. The pattern of voltage-gated currents exhibited by different cell types in this white matter tract was compared with that from cultured cells of the O-2A lineage. Precursor cells from the in vitro and the in situ preparation were strikingly similar in most aspects. In contrast, oligodendrocytes in the intact tissue differed from their culture correlates and displayed the ability to redistribute excess K+. To study glial transmitter receptors in neuronglial interactions during development, Bergmann glial cells were investigated in a slice preparation of the cerebellum.