Fig 1.

Contaminating zinc-mediated enhancement of GlyR function is not affected by the type of vial in which glycine solutions are prepared. A) Sample tracing showing submaximal α1β GlyR currents elicited by glycine solutions prepared in glass, silanized glass, and polypropylene vials in the absence or presence of 2.5 mM tricine (tri). B) Summary data of experiments depicted in panel A. EC₅ glycine was determined in the presence of 2.5 mM tricine in glass vials and its effect was used as the control against which all other conditions were normalized in each oocyte. Control applications of EC₅ glycine + tricine solutions in glass vials were tested throughout each experiment to account for possible drift in GlyR responses over time. For all vials, EC₅ glycine-mediated currents were consistently higher for solutions prepared in the absence of 2.5 mM tricine but, among vial types, there were no significant differences in currents generated by EC₅ glycine solutions prepared in either the presence of absence of 2.5 mM tricine. C) Summary data showing that choice of vial type does not affect GlyR currents mediated by a saturating (10 mM) concentration of glycine. Data are presented as the mean ± S.E.M. of 3 – 5 oocytes.