Conlee J W, Parks T N, Schwartz I R, Creel D J
Veterans Administration Medical Center, Salt Lake City, Utah.
Acta Otolaryngol. 1989 Jan-Feb;107(1-2):48-58. doi: 10.3109/00016488909127478.
Although Corti in 1851 first described the presence of cochlear pigmentation in the stria vascularis (SV) of "very old" cats, modern studies have failed to find pigment consistently in the feline stria. While the variable presence of pigment in the feline SV would appear to contrast with this structure's uniform pigmentation in other mammalian species, variability in both the distribution and abundance of inner ear pigment has rarely been studied in any species. In the present study, the SV was examined light microscopically in sectioned material or whole-mounts from pigmented and albino animals of 5 species, including the cat, guinea pig, rabbit, ferret and mouse. In these species, the SV of each pigmented animal contained varying amounts of melanin pigment and none was found in the albino inner ear. Pigmented guinea pigs contained the most uniformly dense and least variable distribution of strial melanin, followed by the rabbit, mouse, ferret and cat. Several species also displayed more strial pigment apically and less basally. In cats, pigmented cells were principally located adjacent to the strial capillaries. Ultrastructural studies of the stria in pigmented cats revealed that these perivascular cells frequently contained an abundance of pigmented organelles and other structural features which allowed them to be distinguished from intermediate cells.
尽管1851年科尔蒂首次描述了“非常年老”的猫的血管纹（SV）中存在耳蜗色素沉着，但现代研究未能在猫的血管纹中持续发现色素。虽然猫的血管纹中色素的存在情况不一，这似乎与该结构在其他哺乳动物物种中均匀的色素沉着形成对比，但内耳色素的分布和丰度在任何物种中都很少被研究。在本研究中，对5个物种（包括猫、豚鼠、兔子、雪貂和小鼠）的有色和白化动物的切片材料或整装标本进行了血管纹的光学显微镜检查。在这些物种中，每只有色动物的血管纹都含有不同数量的黑色素，而白化动物的内耳中未发现黑色素。有色豚鼠的血管纹黑色素分布最均匀且密度最大，变化最小，其次是兔子、小鼠、雪貂和猫。几个物种的血管纹色素在顶端也比在基部更多。在猫中，色素细胞主要位于血管纹毛细血管附近。对有色猫的血管纹进行的超微结构研究表明，这些血管周围细胞经常含有大量有色素的细胞器和其他结构特征，这使得它们能够与中间细胞区分开来。
