A STUDY OF THE STRIATED ORGANELLE IN VESTIBULAR ENDORGANS

这个子项目是许多利用 由NIH/NCRR资助的中心赠款提供的资源。子项目和 研究者（PI）可能从另一个NIH来源获得了主要资金， 因此可以在其他CRISP条目中表示。所列机构为 研究中心，而研究中心不一定是研究者所在的机构。 在哺乳动物前庭迷路中，毛细胞能够响应跨膜电位的变化而产生轴向变形。我们对毛细胞中的机电转导的理解依赖于对细胞内结构的精确了解，并且对毛细胞生理学建模的努力同样限于已知细胞内几何形状的保真度。本研究对前庭毛细胞的超微结构进行了研究。更确切地说，我们正在观察表皮下区域（表皮板下方），试图可视化和分析静纤毛束和细胞顶端区域交界处的小根结构。我们主要关注的是纹状体细胞器（STO），这是一种位于毛细胞（听觉和前庭感觉细胞）顶端的独特结构，就在表皮板下方。它在哺乳动物I型前庭毛细胞中特别突出。这一提议的中心假设是，纹状细胞器在毛细胞的顶端和基部之间提供结构和功能连接。本提案的目标是描述这种特殊细胞器的三维结构-目标1 -并确定其组成部分（或至少部分组成部分）-目标2。

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. In the mammalian vestibular labyrinth, hair cells are capable of generating axial deformations in response to variations in transmembrane potential. Our understanding of electromechanical transduction in the hair cells depends on precise knowledge of intracellular structure, and efforts to model hair cell physiology are likewise limited to the fidelity of known intracellular geometry. This study focuses on the ultrastructure of vestibular hair cells. More precisely, we are looking at the subcuticular region (below the cuticular plate), trying to visualize and analyze rootlet architecture at the junction of the stereocilia bundle and apical region of the cell. Our main concern is the striated organelle (STO), a unique structure located at the apical end of hair cells (auditory and vestibular sensory cells), just below the cuticular plate. It is particularly prominent in mammalian type I vestibular hair cells. The central hypothesis of this proposal is that striated organelles provide structural and functional connections between the apical and basal parts of the hair cell. The goals of this proposal are to describe the three-dimensional structure of this particular organelle - Aim 1 - and to identify its components (or at least, some of the components) - Aim 2.