Studies of selective ion-sensitive microelectrode technique for the detection of neurotransmitter in vivo

The neurotransmitters such as acetylcholin/cholin (Ach/ch), serotonin and dopamine play very important roles in the course of neurological diseases. Traditional methods used in the detection of these neurotransmitters have enzymatic and radiochemical methods, fluroscence spectroscopy, gas chromatography, high performance liquid chromatograph,thin lay chromatograph and etc.. But these methods cannot be used in the direct and continuous detection of neurotransmitters activity in single cell. In this paper a new-type ion-selective microelectrode technique has been developed. The advantage of the ion-sensitive microelectrode technique is its very high space resolution,by which some interesting ion activity inside and outside the living cells can be monitored continuously for a relatively long time without great damage to the living cells. All these virtues of this technique force us to develop some new ion-sensitive microelectrode especially for acetylcholin/cholin,serotonin, histamine and dopamine. The results obtained showed that the technique could be used successfully in the detection of neurotransmitters in the level of cell,and the technique has promising prospect in the field of neuroscience.