BK channels mediate cholinergic inhibition of high frequency cochlear hair cells.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Outer hair cells are the specialized sensory cells that empower the mammalian hearing organ, the cochlea, with its remarkable sensitivity and frequency selectivity. Sound-evoked receptor potentials in outer hair cells are shaped by both voltage-gated K(+) channels that control the membrane potential and also ligand-gated K(+) channels involved in the cholinergic efferent modulation of the membrane potential. The objectives of this study were to investigate the tonotopic contribution of BK channels to voltage- and ligand-gated currents in mature outer hair cells from the rat cochlea.

Methodology/principal

Findings In this work we used patch clamp electrophysiology and immunofluorescence in tonotopically defined segments of the rat cochlea to determine the contribut

SUBMITTER: Wersinger E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2973960 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature