The microtransplantation technique: a simple ad useful approach to study receptors transplanted into xenopus oocytes

Abstract

Neuroreceptors are involved in many neurological diseases and represent the preferential target for the pharmacological treatments. Thus functional studies of their activity, by the use of electrophysiological techniques, are a fundament approach to understand not only the pathological mechanism of many neurological diseases but also the mechanism of action of potential drugs. Unfortunately, this cannot be applied for studying the receptor activity in all the human tissues. The option is the use of animal models, however they often resemble only some of the neurological diseases in human. In addition, adult or old animals are not always suitable for electrophysiological studies of age-related diseases. Here, we propose the microtransplantation technique as a novel and useful method to study receptors in humans and, more in general, in adult animals.