Hair bundles of cochlear outer hair cells are shaped to minimize their fluid-dynamic resistance
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Ciganovic, N
Wolde-Kidan, A
Reichenbach, JDT
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The mammalian sense of hearing relies on two types of sensory cells: inner hair cells transmit the auditory stimulus to the brain, while outer hair cells mechanically modulate the stimulus through active feedback. Stimulation of a hair cell is mediated by displacements of its mechanosensitive hair bundle which protrudes from the apical surface of the cell into a narrow fluid-filled space between reticular lamina and tectorial membrane. While hair bundles of inner hair cells are of linear shape, those of outer hair cells exhibit a distinctive V-shape. The biophysical rationale behind this morphology, however, remains unknown. Here we use analytical and computational methods to study the fluid flow across rows of differently shaped hair bundles. We find that rows of V-shaped hair bundles have a considerably reduced resistance to crossflow, and that the biologically observed shapes of hair bundles of outer hair cells are near-optimal in this regard. This observation accords with the function of outer hair cells and lends support to the recent hypothesis that inner hair cells are stimulated by a net flow, in addition to the well-established shear flow that arises from shearing between the reticular lamina and the tectorial membrane.
Date Issued
2017-06-15
Date Acceptance
2017-05-04
Citation
Scientific Reports, 2017, 7
ISSN
2045-2322
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Journal / Book Title
Scientific Reports
Volume
7
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2017. his article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or
format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Cre-
ative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this
article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the
material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not per-
mitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the
copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or
format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Cre-
ative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this
article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the
material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not per-
mitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the
copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Subjects
Science & Technology
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Science & Technology - Other Topics
TECTORIAL MEMBRANE
SUBTECTORIAL SPACE
MAMMALIAN COCHLEA
DRAG REDUCTION
FLOW
MECHANICS
STEREOCILIA
WAVES
CILIA
CORTI
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
3609