Using the SliceScope Pro 1000 for Brain Slice Electrophysiology
The SliceScope Pro 1000 is a full electrophysiology rig including a SliceScope upright microscope, motorised XY translation stage, two PatchStar manipulators and adjustable Post & Platform mounting systems for the manipulators and your sample.
This flexible, modular and upgradeable system is ideal for in vitro slice electrophysiology and has been used in multiple labs around the world to investigate basic neurophysiology and the pathology of different diseases on neuronal activity, among other applications.
Below are four examples of published research papers whose experimental protocols included the use of a SliceScope Pro 1000 to enhance their electrophysiology recordings.
The SliceScope Pro 1000 complete electrophysiology rig
An ideal system for conducting in vitro patch clamp electrophysiology in brain slices.
Behave yourself: Let your prefrontal cortex control your instincts
Scientists identified neurons in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) that project to the brainstem to prevent social animals from acting on impulsive instincts in certain contexts.
Being able to inhibit certain behaviours is an important aspect of the lives of a variety of social animals including humans, allowing us to maintain a functioning society.
Researchers were able to elucidate the properties of the neurons that link the mPFC and brainstem by recording electrical activation of brainstem neurons while optogenetically activating the mPFC. They performed these recording experiments on a SliceScope Pro 1000 system.
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Regulating Wakefulness: GABAergic Inhibition of Histaminergic Neurons
We take sleeping for granted, spending about a third of our lives asleep, but it is estimated around a quarter of people suffer from extreme tiredness caused by sleep disorders. Sleep disorders can make switching from a waking state to a sleeping state, or vice versa, difficult.
Researchers at Imperial College London are investigating the mechanisms behind the sleep-wake switch. One of their papers "GABAergic Inhibition of Histaminergic Neurons Regulates Active Waking But Not the Sleep–Wake Switch or Propofol-Induced Loss of Consciousness" used a SliceScope Pro 1000 to perform whole cell patch clamp experiments in histaminergic neurons.
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Get excited: slowly and one step at a time
Generally, neurons are excellent at computing inputs over millisecond timescales. Neuronal cell types often integrate thousands of inputs, with fast decay times (frequently less than 20 ms), to process rapidly changing circumstances.
However, when it comes to phenomena like appetite and hunger, these circuits need to be able to sustain activity over a period of minutes, or even hours, to provide the motivation to drive feeding behaviours.
A collaborative research project from the laboratories of Dr Scott Sternson and Dr Tiago Branco showed that in the hypothalamus, neurons that regulate body weight (AGRP, POMC and PVH neurons) can achieve sustained activity using a fundamentally different mode of synaptic integration than many others.
Whole cell patch clamp recordings, implemented with a SliceScope Pro 1000 were used to measure synaptic integration in brain slices.
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Neuronal firing properties in Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia, affecting an estimated 44.4 million people worldwide in 2013. Symptoms of AD include progressive memory loss, believed to be caused by a build-up of amyloid-β (Aβ) plaques in the Medial Temporal Lobe (MTL).
These plaques lead to dysfunction in areas of the MTL, including the hippocampus and the entorhinal cortex (EC), but the molecular mechanisms behind this dysfunction are not well understood.
Researchers at the Institut de Pharmacologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire studied the electrophysiological properties of certain cell types in the EC in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s Disease using a SliceScope Pro 1000.
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The SliceScope Pro 1000 complete electrophysiology rig
Ideal for in vitro patch clamp electrophysiology in brain slices. It includes a SliceScope upright microscope, motorised XY translation stage, two PatchStar manipulators and adjustable Post & Platform mounting systems for the manipulators and your sample.
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