Department of Otolaryngology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California 94305, USA.
Nat Commun. 2011 Nov 1;2:523. doi: 10.1038/ncomms1533.
Mechanosensation is a primitive and somewhat ubiquitous sense. At the inner ear, sensory hair cells are refined to enhance sensitivity, dynamic range and frequency selectivity. Thirty years ago, mechanisms of mechanotransduction and adaptation were well accounted for by simple mechanical models that incorporated physiological and morphological properties of hair cells. Molecular and genetic tools, coupled with new optical techniques, are now identifying and localizing specific components of the mechanotransduction machinery. These new findings challenge long-standing theories, and require modification of old and development of new models. Future advances require the integration of molecular and physiological data to causally test these new hypotheses.
机械感觉是一种原始而普遍的感觉。在内耳中，感觉毛细胞经过精细的调整，以提高灵敏度、动态范围和频率选择性。三十年前，机械转导和适应的机制通过简单的机械模型得到了很好的解释，这些模型结合了毛细胞的生理和形态特性。现在，分子和遗传工具，加上新的光学技术，正在识别和定位机械转导机制的特定组件。这些新发现挑战了长期存在的理论，并要求对旧模型进行修改和开发新模型。未来的进展需要整合分子和生理数据，以因果关系测试这些新假设。
