A STUDY OF THE STRIATED ORGANELLE IN VESTIBULAR ENDORGANS

这个子项目是许多研究子项目中利用 资源由NIH/NCRR资助的中心拨款提供。子项目和 调查员(PI)可能从NIH的另一个来源获得了主要资金， 并因此可以在其他清晰的条目中表示。列出的机构是 该中心不一定是调查人员的机构。 在哺乳动物的前庭迷路中，毛细胞能够对跨膜电位的变化产生轴向变形。我们对毛细胞机电转导的理解依赖于对细胞内结构的精确了解，而对毛细胞生理学建模的努力同样局限于已知细胞内几何结构的保真度。本研究对前庭毛细胞的超微结构进行了研究。更准确地说，我们观察的是角质层下区域(角质板下面)，试图可视化和分析细胞的立体纤毛束和顶端区域交界处的小根结构。我们主要关注的是纹状细胞器(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，恰好位于角质板下方。在哺乳动物的I型前庭毛细胞中尤为明显。这一建议的中心假设是，有条纹的细胞器在毛细胞的顶端和底部之间提供了结构和功能上的联系。这项提案的目标是描述这一特殊细胞器的三维结构--目标1--并确定其组成部分(或至少某些组成部分)--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.