Potassium ion movement in the inner ear: insights from genetic disease and mouse models

Item Type:	Review
Title:	Potassium ion movement in the inner ear: insights from genetic disease and mouse models
Creators Name:	Zdebik, A.A. and Wangemann, P. and Jentsch, T.J.
Abstract:	Sensory transduction in the cochlea and vestibular labyrinth depends on fluid movements that deflect the hair bundles of mechanosensitive hair cells. Mechanosensitive transducer channels at the tip of the hair cell stereocilia allow K(+) to flow into cells. This unusual process relies on ionic gradients unique to the inner ear. Linking genes to deafness in humans and mice has been instrumental in identifying the ion transport machinery important for hearing and balance. Morphological analysis is difficult in patients, but mouse models have helped to investigate phenotypes at different developmental time points. This review focuses on cellular ion transport mechanisms in the stria vascularis that generate the major electrochemical gradients for sensory transduction.
Keywords:	Inner Ear, Auditory Hair Cells, Ions, Labyrinth Diseases, Potassium, Potassium Channels, Animals, Mice
Source:	Physiology
ISSN:	1548-9213
Publisher:	American Physiological Society
Volume:	24
Number:	5
Page Range:	307-316
Date:	October 2009
Additional Information:	Erratum in: Physiology 24(6): 388
Official Publication:	https://doi.org/10.1152/physiol.00018.2009
PubMed:	View item in PubMed

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