Pressure-Polished Borosilicate Pipettes are "Universal Sealer" Yielding Low Access Resistance and Efficient Intracellular Perfusion

Whole-cell recording is the most widely used configuration of the patch recording technique, mainly because it allows to manipulate the intracellular environment while recording membrane current. However, the patch pipette tapered shank and the small tip opening give high access resistances and preclude efficient exchange between pipette solution and cell cytosol. Independently by the recording configuration, another problem of this technique is to gain consistently tight seals.