Patch-Clamp Recording and RT-PCR on Single Cells

The technique described in this chapter provides electrophysiologists using patch-clamp with a convenient method to link electrophysiological data to a molecular analysis of the mRNAs expressed in a single cell. This molecular analysis can be used either to correlate cell responses with their molecular basis or to identify cell types according to the expression of specific markers. The core of the molecular analysis is polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which makes it fast, sensitive, and simple.