PC-CM-SRCS: A synchronous real-time control system for membranaceous calcium channel study

In functional analysis and morphological analysis study of membranaceous calcium channel, patch-clamp technique and laser scanning confocal microscopy are two most commonly used technology. Patch clamp allows recording of single ionchannel currents, but it cannot locate the ion movement in real time and quantitatively analyze the ion concentration. Confocal microscopy can be used to locate the ion movement by labeling cells with one or more fluorescent probes, but it cannot be used to detect currents passing though ion channels (such as single channel currents). In this study, we install the patch clamp on the confocal microscopy to combine their functions, and then use the self-developed computer program to synchronously real-time control the confocal microscopy and the patch clamp. We apply the synchronous real-time control system of confocal microscopy and patch clamp on membranaceous calcium channel study, which makes us be able to use the patch clamp to measure the current of membranaceous calcium channel while use the confocal microscopy to obtain the images of calcium sparks. The proposed methods solve the synchronization of micro-morphological observation and function analysis in basic biomedical research fields, help to further understand the internal mechanism of membranaceous calcium channel, and achieve promising experimental results.