Whole-bundle nerve recording is an easy technique to gauge peripheral nerve activities. However, this conventional technique fails to detail individual fiber activities. Aiming for a signal resolution at the single-fiber level, we established a relatively novel experimental model so-called ‘oligofiber recordings’. In vitro splanchnic sympathetic nerve-thoracic spinal cord preparations were obtained from Sprague-Dawley neonatal rats. Whole-bundle splanchnic nerves were incubated in a glass micropipette containing 0.5% collagenase for 90 min. The dissociated nerve fascicles were then brought into a small caliber micropipette for electrical signal recordings. Oligofiber activities that displayed several distinct spike potential waveforms were often achieved. Automation of spike sorting was based on spike waveform features using a series of custom-made LabVIEW programs incorporated with MATLAB scripts. Spike data were automatically grouped by k-means clustering algorithms followed by verification of their waveform homogeneity by principal component analysis (PCA). Dissimilar waveforms with exceeding Hotelling’s T2 distances from the cluster centroids were retrieved by a subtraction algorithm (SA), which partially resolved overlapped spikes. Both T2-selected and SA-retrieved spikes were combined as unit activities. To evaluate if unit activities truly originated from single fibers, we examined the probability distribution of interspike intervals (ISIs) and determined if a change of waveform features was a function of their preceding ISIs. Using the oligofiber recording techniques, we could simultaneously examine, on average, ~3 single fiber activities per experiment. With some modifications, these techniques should be applicable to any peripheral nerve recordings.
37th Congress of IUPS (Birmingham, UK) (2013) Proc 37th IUPS, PCA105
Poster Communications: Detailing peripheral nerve activities by oligofiber recordings: a resolution of sympathetic nerve discharge
C. Su1, C. Chiang1,2, Y. Fan1, C. Ho2
1. Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan. 2. Department of Anesthesiology, Taipei Veterans General Hospital and National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan.
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Where applicable, experiments conform with Society ethical requirements.