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Quality of pronase dissociation of mature inferior colliculus neurons

  • Otology
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Abstract

One major advantage of acutely dissociated inferior colliculus (IC) neurons in electrophysiological investigations is their complete isolation from the surrounding cellular network. In this way, patch-clamp recordings can be performed under controlled conditions to study membrane properties of IC neurons in more detail. The aim of the present study was to adapt a dissociation method for immature IC neurons to the highly sensitive, fragile and vulnerable mature IC neurons of mammals (mice). The modification of a pronase-based dissociation protocol with respect to concentration, incubation time and handling (trituration) of the cells yielded intact, live IC neurons with a clean cell surface so that they were well suited for further electrophysiological investigations in our study. The largely modified dissociation protocol is described in detail and critically discussed.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the federal state of NRW (Lise-Meitner grant to CB). The authors are particularly grateful to Prof. M. Vater for her helpful comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany

    Corinna Bergmann & Dietmar Basta

  2. Department of Phoniatrics and Pedaudiology, Hanover Medical School, Carl-Neuberg-Str. 1, 30625, Hanover, Germany

    Corinna Bergmann & Martin Ptok

  3. Department of Otolaryngology at UKB, Hospital of the University of Berlin (Charite Medical School), Berlin, Germany

    Arne Ernst

Authors
  1. Corinna Bergmann
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  2. Dietmar Basta
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  3. Martin Ptok
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  4. Arne Ernst
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Correspondence to Corinna Bergmann.

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Bergmann, C., Basta, D., Ptok, M. et al. Quality of pronase dissociation of mature inferior colliculus neurons. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol 262, 965–968 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-005-0932-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-005-0932-3

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