Intracellular recordings from isolated salamander olfactory receptor neurons.

Isolated receptor cells were obtained by enzymatic dissociation of nasal sacs from the land-phase tiger salamander. The isolated cells have an ovoid soma, a dendrite of variable length which terminates in a cilia-bearing knob and an axon, also of variable length. Intracellular recordings were obtained using patch pipettes. Good recordings were characterized by resting potentials of -40 mV, high input impedance and the presence of fast overshooting action potentials upon depolarization or rebound excitation. With one cell, chemical stimulation evoked large depolarizations which produced action potentials. The reversal potential of this response was +2.7 mV. The results show that these cells can be dissociated for patch recordings, and they support previous studies indicating that transduction of olfactory stimuli leads to a depolarization of vertebrate olfactory receptor neurons.