Measurement of Intrinsic Physiological Membrane Noise in Cultured Living Cells

Abstract

An experimental technique and some preliminary observations are reported here for the measurement of electric noise and potentials intrinsic to the physiological function of living cells, using an in vitro yeast cells (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) model. The design and working of technique is based on a micro-electrode-based sensor working in a modified patch-clamp configuration. We present recordings of intrinsic noise and cellular electric potentials in living and aerobically respiring cells (in an electromagnetically shielded environment). An important observation of the effect of aerobic respiration on the studied cells is discussed, whereby conspicuously higher magnitude potentials were seen with aerobically respiring active yeast cells, as compared to anaerobic or dead cells. Recorded noise potentials from aerobically respiring cells are found to have a magnitude on the order of a few microVolts/cm and fall within the range of 140– in the low-frequency (LF) band.

Keywords:

• Membrane noise
• Bioelectromagnetism
• Cellular currents
• Electrophysiology

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the State of Texas through the Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston and by the Robert A. Welch Foundation (E-1221). In addition, the authors acknowledge valuable discussions with Professor William Widger at the Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Houston, who also contributed yeast cell inocula used in this study. Current funding of M. H. S. Bukhari is by the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan, under its Foreign Faculty Program (SFHP Phase III), and a faculty grant from the Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi.

Declaration of Interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.