A patch-clamp study on human sperm Cl- channel reassembled into giant liposome.

Aim: To record the single-channel currents and characterize the electrophysiological properties of the Cl~- channels inhuman sperm membrane. Methods: The membrane proteins extracted from the human sperm were reassembled intoliposome bilayer, and the liposomes were fused into giant liposomes with a diameter more than 10μm by dehydration-rehydration procedure. The giant liposomes were used to study the Cl~- channel activities by patch-clamp technique.Results: By patch clamping the giant liposome in an asymmetric NMDG (N-methyl-D-glucamine)-Cl (bath 100//pipette 200 mmol/L) solution system, three kinds of single-channel events with unit conductances of (74.1 ± 8.3) pS,(117.0±5.7) pS and (144.7±4.5) pS, respectively, were detected. Their activities were voltage-dependent and allwere blocked by SITS (4-acetamido-4'-isothiocyanato-stilbene-2', 2'-disulfonic acid) in a concentration-dependentmanner. By constructing the open and close dwell time distribution histograms and then fitting them with exponentialfunction, two time constants were obtained in both the open and the close states. The burst activity and conductancesubstate of the channels were observed. Conclusion; There exist three kinds of Cl~- channels with different conduc-tance in human sperm membrane at least. (Asian J Androl 2001 Sep; 3: 185 - 191)