TY - JOUR
T1 - Microtubules of Guinea pig cochlear epithelial cells
AU - Kikuchi, Toshihiko
AU - Takasaka, Tomonori
AU - Tonosaki, Akira
AU - Katori, Yukio
AU - Shinkawa, Hideichi
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to express our sincere graditude to Professor K. Saito, Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, College of Medical Care and Technology, Gunma University, for his valuable suggestions about this study. We are also grateful to Miss R. Sato, Y. Yonemoto, A. litsuka, Y. Ono, Y. Nozaki, and Mrs F. Kikuchi for their excellent technical assistance. This work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Encouragement of Young Scientists (No. 02771 106) from the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, Japan.
PY - 1991
Y1 - 1991
N2 - By tannic acid staining, the 13-protofilament composition of cochlear hair cell microtubules, an impressive contrast against the 15-protofilament microtubules in cochlear pillar cells, was verified. The 15-protofilament microtubules formed a large and stiff cytoskeletal bundle in pillar cell bodies involving abundant actin filaments. The bundles were always situated vertically, i.e., longitudinally to the cell body axis, and were most numerous in the outer as well as the inner pillar cells in the basal turn, decreasing gradually toward the apex. Such gradient architecture of the pillar cell cytoskeleton can be correlated with the tuning mechanism for traveling waves of sound containing variable frequencies.
AB - By tannic acid staining, the 13-protofilament composition of cochlear hair cell microtubules, an impressive contrast against the 15-protofilament microtubules in cochlear pillar cells, was verified. The 15-protofilament microtubules formed a large and stiff cytoskeletal bundle in pillar cell bodies involving abundant actin filaments. The bundles were always situated vertically, i.e., longitudinally to the cell body axis, and were most numerous in the outer as well as the inner pillar cells in the basal turn, decreasing gradually toward the apex. Such gradient architecture of the pillar cell cytoskeleton can be correlated with the tuning mechanism for traveling waves of sound containing variable frequencies.
KW - Basal-apical
KW - Cochlear hair cells
KW - Cochlear supporting cells
KW - Gradient of stiffness
KW - Microtubular protofilament
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U2 - 10.3109/00016489109137389
DO - 10.3109/00016489109137389
M3 - Article
C2 - 2068915
AN - SCOPUS:0025860069
SN - 0001-6489
VL - 111
SP - 286
EP - 290
JO - Acta Oto-Laryngologica
JF - Acta Oto-Laryngologica
IS - 2
ER -