Fig. 2

Depolarization-triggered cell death in a single Cec-expressing MCF7 cell. a After 1 day transfection a Cec-expressing cell was clamped by a patch pipette. b A focused region of four Cec-expressing cells showing green fluorescence. c Ethd-1 was used to stain dead cells. Note that the patched cell in a white circle was live (no red color) prior to membrane depolarization. d After 1 h of depolarizing membrane to -10 mV, the patched cell was dead shown by the red color in the white circle. e Enhanced exposure to illustrate the red color in the white circle. f In comparison to (b) the dead cell was confirmed by loss of green fluorescent signal while other 3 Cec-expressing cells not subjected to membrane depolarization were still alive. g A Cav1.2-expressing MCF cell patched by a patch pipette, h Ethd-1 demonstrated that the patched cell was alive (in the white circle), the white arrows indicated dead cells used as a reference. i After membrane depolarization to -10 mV for 1 h, the cell was still alive without the red color. White circle in H and I indicates the patched cell. Similar results were obtained in an additional 5 cells