ABSTRACT
The macromolecule of interest is added to the patch-pipette solution at the desired concentration. The technique of patch clamping in brain slices has become a widely used tool in 5 years, destroying the myth that a cell surface free of various extracellular and glial investments is an essential prerequisite for formation of a gigaohm seal. In 1989 A. Konnerth et al. demonstrated that whole-cell recordings could be made in thin slices of mammalian brain tissue if care was taken to prevent clogging of the patch pipette tip. The locus coeruleus are visually identified in rat brain-stem slices as dark oval areas in the upper pons on the lateral borders of the central gray and the fourth ventricle, at a frontal plane at or just anterior to the genu of the facial nerve.
