Studies of selective ion-sensitive microelectrode technique for the detection of neurotransmitter in vivo

The neurotransmitters such as acetylcholine/choline (Ach/ch), serotonin and dopamine play very important roles in the course of neurological diseases. Traditional methods used in the detection of these neurotransmitters have enzymatic and radiochemical methods, fluorescence spectroscopy, gas chromatography, high performance liquid chromatography, thin layer chromatography etc. But these methods cannot be used in the direct and continuous detection of neurotransmitter activity in a single cell. Here, a new ion-selective microelectrode technique has been developed. The advantage of the ion-sensitive microelectrode technique is in its very high spatial resolution, by which some interesting ion activity inside and outside the living cells can be monitored continuously for a relatively long time without great damage to the living cells. All these virtues of this technique force the authors to develop some new ion-sensitive microelectrode especially for acetylcholine/choline, serotonin, histamine and dopamine. The results obtained showed that the technique could be used successfully in the detection of neurotransmitters at the cellular level, and the technique has promising prospects in the field of neuroscience.