RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 A dynamic clamp protocol to artificially modify cell capacitance
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2021.11.12.468368
DO 10.1101/2021.11.12.468368
A1 Paul Pfeiffer
A1 Federico José Barreda Tomás
A1 Jiameng Wu
A1 Jan-Hendrik Schleimer
A1 Imre Vida
A1 Susanne Schreiber
YR 2021
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/11/13/2021.11.12.468368.abstract
AB Dynamics of excitable cells and networks depend on the membrane time constant, set by membrane resistance and capacitance. Whereas pharmacological and genetic manipulations of ionic conductances are routine in electrophysiology, experimental control over capacitance remains a challenge. Here, we present capacitance clamp, an approach that allows to mimic a modified capacitance in biological neurons via an unconventional application of the dynamic clamp technique. We first demonstrate the feasibility to quantitatively modulate capacitance in a mathematical neuron model and then confirm the functionality of capacitance clamp in in vitro experiments in granule cells of rodent dentate gyrus with up to threefold virtual capacitance changes. Clamping of capacitance thus constitutes a novel technique to probe and decipher mechanisms of neuronal signaling in ways that were so far inaccessible to experimental electrophysiology.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.