Tri-axial magnetic field exposure system for a patch-clamp set-up

The patch-clamp, as a sophisticated tool to investigate the electrophysiological activity at the single cell and even at single channel levels, can be used for a systematic study of the effects of electromagnetic fields (EMF) on ion transport across the cell membrane. In the last years some hypotheses were put forward aimed at understanding EMF interaction mechanisms, focusing on the effects on specific ion kinetics such as Ca++, K+ and other ions involved in cell physiology. In order to verify these hypotheses a stable controlled combination of a static and oscillating magnetic fields (MF) is needed. For this purpose we have designed and fabricated a MF exposure system trying to reach a good compromise between MF homogeneity and accessibility to the patch-clamp set-up. The MF exposure system consists of 3 large orthogonal pairs of square coils surrounding the patch-clamp set-up, able to generate different combinations of static and alternating MF, reaching a 1% uniformity level in a 4 cm×4 cm × 4 cm region around the centre for the 3 components of MF.