Patent ID: 6338960
Filing Date: 2002-01-15
Classification: G01F,G01N,Y10S,Y10T

Abstract:
A histamine measuring apparatus for quantitatively analyzing a concentration of histamine, comprising:an oocyte which expresses histamine receptors and identifies specifically the presence of histamine; a vessel having a recess at a bottom thereof wherein a buffer solution is filled in said vessel and said oocyte is held in the recess; means for adding histamine released from a sample to said oocyte, wherein said histamine is released from the sample by stimulating the sample with an antigen, and wherein a membrane potential of said oocyte is maintained at a fixed potential; a first electrode disposed within said oocyte held in the recess wherein said first electrode detects the potential of the membrane of said oocyte; a second electrode disposed within said oocyte held in the recess; an external electrode disposed in the buffer solution in said vessel; a differential amplifier, wherein a potential signal of said first electrode is transmitted to said differential amplifier as a difference potential signal from a potential of said external electrode, and said differential amplifier applies a current difference between the transmitted potential signal from said first electrode and the fixed potential to said oocyte through said second electrode to maintain the potential of the membrane of said oocyte at the fixed potential; and a recorder, wherein the potential signal of said first electrode is recorded as the difference potential from said external electrode; wherein a change in the electric response of said oocyte is detected before and after binding of histamine to the histamine receptors in order to determine a concentration of histamine released from the sample by means of a predefined calibration curve obtained by stimulating said oocyte with a plurality of known concentrations of histamine to detect the electric response of said oocyte to obtain a correlation between said electric responses and said plurality of known concentrations of histamine.