Zenner H P, Zimmermann U, Gitter A H
Department of Otolaryngology, University of Würzburg, W. Germany.
Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 1987 Nov 30;149(1):304-8. doi: 10.1016/0006-291x(87)91639-1.
Auditory sensory cells (hair cells) are responsible for sound transduction in the cochlea of the inner ear. In the presence of a longitudinal a.c. field isolated living outer hair cells showed reversible motile responses. They followed the stimulus up to at least 1 kHz. Control experiments in the presence of cytochalasin B, phalloidin and dinitrophenol excluded actomyosin as a molecular basis of the high frequency motility. The results suggest, that outer hair cells might amplify sound-induced oscillations in the inner ear and thus increase sensitivity and frequency selectivity of hearing.
