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Optical measurement of membrane potential

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Reviews of Physiology, Biochemistry and Pharmacology, Volume 83

Part of the book series: Reviews of Physiology, Biochemistry and Pharmacology ((REVIEWS,volume 83))

Abstract

Optical measurement of membrane potential is a new tool for physiologists and has already found many applications. However, the number of possible pitfalls is alarming, particularly in situations where comparison with electrode measurements is impossible. Exhaustive and elaborate controls are clearly necessary; and yet they never provide complete assurance that an optical signal represents a change in membrane potential. In our opinion, the use of redistribution signals, which are slower, and thus more likely to represent to secondary effects of changes in membrane potential, and require permeant dyes with access to the internal millieu, may be more hazardous than the use of either fast or intrinsic signals. However, the larger size of the redistribution signals has endowed them with obvious appeal. If more sensitive fast signals can be found, the use of this kind of signal would be facilitated.

Even though optical methods for measuring membrane potential were introduced relatively recently, their uses have multiplied rapidly and will doubtless continue to proliferate. It seems likely that, in several instances, optical techniques will prove to be quite powerful and, used with caution, should provide information unobtainable by other methods.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiology, Yale University School of Medicine, 06510, New Haven, CT, USA

    Lawrence B. Cohen

  2. Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, School of Dental Medicine and Institute of Neurological Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, 19074, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Brian M. Salzberg

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Cohen, L.B., Salzberg, B.M. (1978). Optical measurement of membrane potential. In: Reviews of Physiology, Biochemistry and Pharmacology, Volume 83. Reviews of Physiology, Biochemistry and Pharmacology, vol 83. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-08907-1_2

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