Elastic Properties Of The Tectorial Membrane

覆盖膜是一种覆盖在哺乳动物耳蜗科尔提器上的胶原性组织膜。人们认为TM在统称为耳蜗放大器的活性机制中起着核心作用。它的作用很可能是机械过滤器，因此，了解其机械性能对于了解其在健康和疾病中的作用是必要的。在这里，我们从豚鼠和小鼠身上解剖新鲜的TM，并开发将这些膜附着到刚性底物上的方案。原子力显微镜是用来采集力-距离数据的，我们用它们来提取薄膜材料的弹性模量和可能的各向异性特征。这些数据将被用来开发现场膜的真实力学模型，然后将其集成到整个耳蜗模型中，以研究其过滤特性。模拟各种听觉缺陷的正常动物和转基因动物都在研究中。

The tectorial membrane (TM) is a collageneous tissue membrane overlying the organ of Corti in the mammalian cochlea. It is believed that the TM plays a central role in the active mechanism collectively known as the Cochlear Amplifier. Its role is most likely that of a mechanical filter and, therefore, knowledge of its mechanical properties is necessary for understanding its role in health and disease. Here we dissect fresh TM's from guinea pigs and mice and develop the protocol for attaching these membranes to rigid substrates. The atomic force microscope is used to collect force-distance data and we use them to extract elastic moduli and possibly anisotropy characteristics for the membrane material. These data will be used to develop realistic mechanical models of the membrane in-situ, which will then be integrated into whole cochlea models to investigate its filter characteristics. Both normal and genetically altered animals modeling various auditory deficiencies are being studied.