Analyses of physiological roles of cochlear endolymph and search for the diseases caused by endolymphatic dysfunction.

在这项研究中，我们专注于耳蜗“内淋巴”，一个独特的细胞外溶液必不可少的听力。我们试图测量内淋巴的物理性质和成分。我们还计划阐明这种液体特征的生理意义及其与听力损失的关系。为此，我们尝试用双管微电极单纯采集内淋巴液，但未能获得足够的液量。耳蜗内离子转运可影响内淋巴物理性质分子的结构和功能。因此，我们分析了整个耳蜗的K+运输，并通过实验方法证明了其潜在的机制。在此基础上，我们进一步建立了耳蜗K+转运和内淋巴电化学特性的计算模型。利用这个模型，我们从理论上证明了耳聋的一种形式是由于耳蜗局部离子传递的紊乱而引起的。

In this study we focused on cochlear “endolymph”, an uniqueextracellular solution essential for hearing. We attempted to measure physical propertyand constituents of the endolymph. We also planned to elucidate physiologicalsignificance of the feature of this fluid and its involvement in hearing loss. For thesepurposes, we tried to purely harvest the endolymph with double-barreled microelectrode,but we could not obtain sufficient amount of the fluid. Ion-transport in the cochleacould affect structure and function of the molecules exhibiting physical property of theendolymph. We therefore analyzed K+-transport throughout the cochlear and demonstratedthe underlying mechanism by experimental approaches. On the basis of these results, wefurther developed computational model to simulate cochlear K+-transport and theelectrochemical property of the endolymph. By using this model, we theoretically showedthat one form of deafness would be caused by disorder of local ion-transport in thecochlea.