Figure 5

Hyperforin induces currents in lipid bilayers.

(a) Inward and outward currents at −80 and +80 mV, respectively, from tight lipid bilayers at the tip of a patch pipette. As indicated by the bars either 10 μM hyperforin, 100 μM CCCP or 1% DMSO were applied. (b) depicts the current-voltage relationship (IV) of the basic current measured from the tight lipid bilayer. In (c) the corresponding IVs from the experiments in (a) are displayed after subtraction of the basic current (see b). Note that 10 μM hyperforin induced a significant conductance in the lipid bilayer. The protonophore CCCP (100 μM) yields a significant but much smaller current and 1% DMSO did not result in any current at all (blue IV trace on top of x-axis in c). Data represent means ± S.E.M. of the indicated number of lipid bilayer experiments.