Feasibility and limitation of patch-clamp recordings on neonatal rat cardiac ventricular slices

To attempt to the feasibility of whole-cell patch-clamp recordings on the cardiac ventricular slices of newborn (P3-P7) Sprague-Dawley (S-D) rats and find a good substitute of the single cardiac myocytes with enzymatic treatment. High resistance seals (>1 GΩ) could be obtained in the cardiac ventricle tissue on this preparation without enzymatic treatment. Then, the cell-attached and whole-cell patch-clamp techniques can be achieved in the thin (200μm) cardiac slices. Averaged sodium current (n=ll cells) was recorded in cell-attached mode, displayed similar features to that previously reported from isolated rat ventricular myocytes. The outward potassium current, Hyperpolarization-activated cation channel or If channel (HCN channel) and action potential (AP) were recorded in whole-cell configuration (n=2 cells) and the similar properties can be seen from the cardiac slices. Cell-attached mode is a stable and reliable mode to record the ion treatment. Resting potential for cardiac slice, measured from Current-clamp recording in whole-cell mode, is about -50 - - 70 mV. The resting potential value from the cardiac slice has similar property except that it is positive to the isolated cardiomyocytes by enzymes. Application of patch-clamp techniques to cardiac slices allows single channel recordings without complicated procedures of cell isolation. Moreover, possible alteration of channel properties caused by proteolytic enzymes can be avoided. In this paper, whole-cell patch-clamp recordings could be achieved on the cardiac slice and we affirmed the feasibility and values of the both recording modes on it. At the same time, there is difficulty and limitation of the application of whole-cell patch-clamp on the cardiac slice for the existence of large mount of connective tissue even in the newborn rats.