Fig. 1.

Activation of MS whole-cell currents by pressure. A,Top trace, Whole-cell currents of a cultured sensory neuron activated by pressure.Bottom trace, Positive pressures applied to the patch pipette. B, A summary of MS whole-cell currents in sensory neurons. Because of the fragile nature of whole cells, positive pressures of <20 mmHg were applied to whole cells. Membrane potential was held at −60 mV. **p < 0.01 compared with the mean of whole-cell currents activated by 5 mmHg. Numbers inparentheses represent the number of experiments.C, Current–voltage relationship of the whole-cell current activated by pressure. Voltage ramps (bottom trace) ranging from −100 to +100 mV with 300 msec duration were applied before and during pressure application. Current elicited before pressure (solid line), during pressure application (dotted line), and difference current (dashedline).