| Comments |
"The human organ of Corti harbors
~
16,000 hair cells that
are patterned in one row of inner hair cells (IHCs) and three rows
of outer hair cells (OHCs Fig. 1, B and C). Each hair cell contains at the apical surface its mechanically sensitive organelle,
the hair bundle, which consists of dozens of stereocilia (Fig. 1,
C and D Fig. 2 A). An extracellular matrix, the tectorial membrane, covers the apical surface of the organ of Corti and is attached to the stereociliary bundles of OHCs. The cell bodies of
hair cells form tight connections with support cells, which in
turn adhere at their basal surface to an additional extracellular
matrix, the basilar membrane (Fig. 1 B)." |