Uncoordinated maturation of developing and regenerating postnatal mammalian vestibular hair cells.

ABSTRACT: Sensory hair cells are mechanoreceptors required for hearing and balance functions. From embryonic development, hair cells acquire apical stereociliary bundles for mechanosensation, basolateral ion channels that shape receptor potential, and synaptic contacts for conveying information centrally. These key maturation steps are sequential and presumed coupled; however, whether hair cells emerging postnatally mature similarly is unknown. Here, we show that in vivo postnatally generated and regenerated hair cells in the utricle, a vestibular organ detecting linear acceleration, acquired some mature somatic features but hair bundles appeared nonfunctional and short. The utricle consists of two hair cell subtypes with distinct morphological, electrophysiological and synaptic features. In both th

SUBMITTER: Wang T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6602158 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature