Biomechanics of Vertebrate Hair Cells: Experimental and Computational Analysis

脊椎动物毛细胞的生物力学：实验和计算分析

• 批准号: 9319630
• 负责人: Ellengene Peterson
• 金额: $ 18.9万
• 依托单位: Ohio University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1994
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1994-06-15 至 1997-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9319630&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Biomechanics; Vertebrate; Hair; Cells; Experimental

Hair cells are a class of mechanosensory receptor cells in all vertebrates, which are used to detect sound, head movement, vibration, and gravity. The first step in the process converting the mechanical stimulus to a nerve signal is the deflection of the microscopic bundle, called a ciliary bundle, that is a tuft of hairlike processes on the top of the cell. This project is a collaborative bioengineering effort between a neurobiologist and a bioengineer, using a novel methodology to explore the micromechanics of these bundles. Microscopic anatomical techniques are used to quantify the detailed structures of the ciliary bundles, and these data will be used in a computational model incorporating the contribution of different structural elements to bundle mechanics, and to predict the performance of bundles having different shapes and sizes. A novel fiber-optics system technology is being developed to measure bundle stiffness by direct experiments on an isolated preparation of tissue, to test the model predictions. These studies will provide important fundamental and novel information on mechanosensory mechanisms at the subcellular level, with impact on auditory and other mechanosensory systems, and the technology developed may have important applications in micromechanics in bioengineering and biomedical applications, and in industry.

毛细胞是所有脊椎动物中的一类机械感受器细胞，用于检测声音，头部运动，振动和重力。 将机械刺激转化为神经信号的过程中的第一步是微观束的偏转，称为纤毛束，这是细胞顶部的一簇毛发状突起。 这个项目是一个神经生物学家和生物工程师之间的合作生物工程的努力，使用一种新的方法来探索这些束的微观力学。 显微解剖技术被用来量化的详细结构的睫状束，这些数据将被用于一个计算模型，将不同的结构元素束力学的贡献，并预测具有不同的形状和大小的束的性能。 一种新型的光纤系统技术正在开发中，以测量束刚度的直接实验上的一个孤立的准备组织，以测试模型的预测。 这些研究将在亚细胞水平上提供关于机械感觉机制的重要基础和新颖信息，对听觉和其他机械感觉系统产生影响，并且所开发的技术可能在生物工程和生物医学应用以及工业中的微观力学中具有重要应用。