Organ of Corti explants direct tonotopically graded morphology of spiral ganglion neurons in vitro.

ABSTRACT: The spiral ganglion is a compelling model system to examine how morphological form contributes to sensory function. While the ganglion is composed mainly of a single class of type I neurons that make simple one-to-one connections with inner hair cell sensory receptors, it has an elaborate overall morphological design. Specific features, such as soma size and axon outgrowth, are graded along the spiral contour of the cochlea. To begin to understand the interplay between different regulators of neuronal morphology, we cocultured neuron explants with peripheral target tissues removed from distinct cochlear locations. Interestingly, these "hair cell microisolates" were capable of both increasing and decreasing neuronal somata size, without adversely affecting survival. Moreover, axon character

SUBMITTER: Smith FL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4892977 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature