Figure 5:

Paraquat destroys hair cells in the apical turn of Sirt3 heterozygous mice. Representative confocal photomicrographs of cochlear organotypic cultures from the apex and base of the cochlea from Sirt3 heterozygous mouse cochlea labeled with phalloidin conjugated to Alexa 488 (green) to label the three parallel rows of outer hair cells (OHCs) and single row of inner hair cells (IHCs). Note orderly rows of hair cells in the (A) apex and (B) base of Control cochlea (0 μM paraquat) cultured for 24 h. Treatment of Sirt3 heterozygous mice with 50 μM of paraquat causes (C) massive loss of IHCs, and OHCs in the apex of the cochlea, but (D) little or no hair cell damage in the base of the cochlea.