Figure - PMC

Skip to main content

An official website of the United States government

Here's how you know

Here's how you know

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

View full-text article in PMC

. 2004 Aug 16;166(4):559–570. doi: 10.1083/jcb.200402007

Search in PMC
Search in PubMed
View in NLM Catalog
Add to search

Copyright © 2004, The Rockefeller University Press

This article is distributed under the terms of an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike–No Mirror Sites license for the first six months after the publication date (see http://www.rupress.org/terms). After six months it is available under a Creative Commons License (Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 4.0 Unported license, as described at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).

PMC Copyright notice

Figure 4. — Postnatal degeneration of stereocilia on Rdx ^−/− cochlear hair cells. (A) Scanning electron micrographs (a–f) and whole-mount immunofluorescence micrographs for radixin and ezrin (g–j) of the organ of Corti isolated from Rdx ^+/+ and Rdx ^−/− mice at 6 d of age (P6). The levels of outer hair cells (blue arrows) and inner hair cells (black arrows) are shown. Scanning EM does not detect any significant differences between Rdx ^+/+ (a, c, and e) and Rdx ^−/− cochlea (b, d, and f). In contrast to P1 Rdx ^+/+ cochlea, in P6 Rdx ^+/+ cochlea, whole-mount immunostaining detects a weak signal of ezrin at radixin-enriched stereocilia on inner hair cells (black arrow), and a trace of ezrin in outer hair cells (blue arrow) (g and i). In Rdx ^−/− cochlea (h and j), ezrin is still highly concentrated at stereocilia on both inner hair cells (black arrow) and outer hair cells (blue arrow). Bars, 10 μm (a and b); 2 μm (c and d); 1 μm (e and f); 20 μm (g–j). (B) Scanning electron micrographs (a–f) and whole-mount immunofluorescence micrographs for radixin and ezrin (g–j) of the organ of Corti isolated from Rdx ^+/+ and Rdx ^−/− mice at 14 d of age (P14). Scanning EM detects the initial sign for the degeneration of stereocilia on outer hair cells (blue arrow) (a–d). The central part of the W-shaped row of stereocilia is lost, leaving discontinuous and disorganized arrays of stereocilia in Rdx ^−/− cochlea. At this stage, no significant defects can be observed in stereocilia on the inner hair cells (black arrow) (b and f). In P14 Rdx ^+/+ cochlea, ezrin is only weakly detected at radixin-enriched stereocilia on inner hair cells (black arrow), and is not detected in outer hair cells (blue arrow) (g and i). In Rdx ^−/− cochlea, ezrin was still concentrated in the degenerating stereocilia in large amounts in outer and inner hair cells (h). Bars, 10 μm (a and b); 2 μm (c and d); 1 μm (e and f); 20 μm (g–j).