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. 2018 Jan 16;19(3):e44598. doi: 10.15252/embr.201744598

Figure 5. Electrophysiological parameters of CB mature glomus cells and neuroblasts.

Figure 5

  • A
    Voltage‐gated ionic outward currents elicited by depolarizing voltage steps, using the whole‐cell configuration of the patch‐clamp technique, on both mature glomus cells (TH) and neuroblasts (mTH/HNK), sorted alive by flow cytometry (see Fig EV2).
  • B
    Current density measurements of outward potassium currents recorded from mature glomus cells (TH; n = 14 cells) and neuroblasts (mTH/HNK; n = 13 cells), illustrating a higher potassium channel density in immature mTH+/HNK+ cells. Data are presented as mean ± SEM.
  • C
    Voltage‐gated ionic inward currents recorded with the whole‐cell configuration of the patch‐clamp technique in both mature glomus cells (TH) and neuroblasts (mTH/HNK). Note the absence of fast‐activating sodium currents in mature neuronal cells.
  • D
    Current‐to‐voltage relationship of inward calcium currents in both mature glomus cells (TH; n = 18 cells) and neuroblasts (mTH/HNK; n = 21 cells), reflecting the absence of important differences between the two. Data are presented as mean ± SEM.
  • E–G
    Quantification of the percentage of mature glomus cells (TH) and neuroblasts (mTH/HNK) displaying different ionic currents (number of total cells studied is indicated between brackets).
  • H
    Cell capacitance measured by patch clamp in mature glomus cells (TH; n = 29 cells) and neuroblasts (mTH/HNK; n = 30 cells), confirming the smaller size of the latter.
  • I
    Input resistance measured by patch clamp in both mature glomus cells (n = 29) and neuroblasts (n = 30).
Data information: Data in bar graphs of panels (E), (F), and (G) are presented as the sum of cells presenting the indicated ion currents among total cells studied. Data in bar graphs of panels (H) and (I) are presented as mean ± SEM. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001 (Student's t‐test). Cells used for the analysis in this figure were obtained in three independent experiments with a total of 11 rats.Source data are available online for this figure.