Jun. 01, 2008

Structural Support of Hair Cell Transduction

Transduction of sound is dependent upon the organisation of the cytoskeletal structures that form and support the stereociliary bundle of cochlear hair cells. Freeze-fracture followed by deep etching reveals the organisation of the hair cell cytoskeleton and indicates how mechanical support for stereocilia is provided. This can offer explanations of why mutations in certain genes that are widely expressed in the body have effects only upon the functioning of auditory hair cells to cause non-syndromic deafness.

Introduction
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