Computer program for performing whole-cell voltage-clamp experiments.

Abstract

This computer program was designed to be used instead of a stimulator and an oscilloscope in whole-cell voltage-clamp experiments. It runs on IBM XT-AT compatible computers under MS-DOS. The program uses drivers for specific ADC-DAC boards, which are stored in separate files. The driver to be used is loaded on start-up. Drivers for Labmaster TL-1 and CSY-10 are available and the driver for CED 1401 is now being developed. Stimulus waveforms of up to five consecutive pulses are supported. Data may be acquired from up to four input channels, using two ADC sampling rates. The acquired data are visualised on six plots which can be resized and moved independently on the screen in order to obtain a readable picture. A special mode for monitoring the giga-seal formation is supported. There are several data processing procedures, which can be used without interrupting the experiment, including I-V relationships, cursor measurements, addition and subtraction of obtained currents.