HAIR CELL TRANSDUCTION IN A MAMMALIAN VESTIBULAR ORGAN

描述(改编自申请者摘要)：约40% 40岁以上的美国人有时会抱怨头晕。在许多情况下，损失 或内耳感觉细胞受损。平衡失调 对生活质量和生产力产生负面影响，并可能导致 抑郁和焦虑。关于它的正常功能仍有许多未知之处 哺乳动物前庭器官中的感觉细胞，它为 保持平衡和凝视的反射。我建议研究刺激性 由小鼠椭圆体中的感觉细胞进行处理。毛细胞，感官 内耳的感受器，包含电压和机械门控 相互作用形成发送给中枢神经的信号的电导 系统。小鼠的椭圆囊含有两种分布的毛细胞。 贯穿整个器官。这些细胞由三种类型的 前庭传入神经的放电特性随 它们所支配的椭圆体区域。这背后的机制 地区性组织未知，但可能包括地区性组织 毛细胞电压通道和机械门控通道的差异。 如何表达，激活的电压范围，或适应动力学 这些电导率的变化尚不清楚。初步数据显示存在差异 在离子通道表达的椭圆形毛细胞中，电压范围 激活和适应动力学，但无论这些或其他差异 是否按地区组织尚不清楚。这项提案旨在调查 毛细胞特性是否因地区而异，以及差异是否 观察到的结果解释了传入放电特性的差异。

DESCRIPTION (Adapted from applicant's abstract): About 40 percent of Americans over 40 complain of dizziness at some time. In many cases, loss or damage of sensory cells in the inner ear is implicated. Dysequilibrium negatively impacts quality of life and productivity and can lead to depression and anxiety. Much remains unknown about the normal function of sensory cells in mammalian vestibular organs, which provide the input to reflexes that maintain balance and gaze. I propose to study stimulus processing by sensory cells in the mouse utricle. Hair cells, the sensory receptors of the inner ear, contain voltage and mechanically gated conductances that interact to shape the signals sent to the central nervous system. The mouse utricle contains two types of hair cells distributed throughout the organ. These cells are contacted by three types of vestibular afferents whose discharge properties vary systematically with the region of the utricle they innervate. The mechanisms underlying this regional organization are unknown, but are likely to include regional differences in the voltage and mechanically gated channels of hair cells. How the expression, voltage ranges of activation, or adaptation kinetics of these conductances vary is not known. Preliminary data show variations among utricular hair cells in ion channel expression, voltage ranges of activation and adaptation kinetics, but whether these or other differences are regionally organized is not known. This proposal aims to investigate whether hair cell properties vary with region and whether the differences observed explain differences in afferent firing properties.