| Images and Movies of the Outer Hair Cells
Three-dimensional rendering of an isolated guinea pig inner-ear outer hair cell. The cell is lying in bathing medium surrounded by assorted cellular debris. A 30 µm layer of the medium is rendered from 60 optical sections collected at 500 nm intervals.The images were deconvolved by MicroTome (VayTek, Inc.) and 3D rendered with VoxBlast (VayTek, Inc.). The plasma membrane has been stained with the fluorescent lipid analogue di-8-ANEPPS. The boxes show slices from the base and the middle of the cell. The slices were digitally extracted, further enhanced and rotated. Dye has entered the base of the cell because of synaptic related pinocytosis. In contrast, the dye is only present on the plasma membrane in the central portion of the cell. Fluorescent recovery after photobleaching was used to measure lipid mobility in the central region. Lipid mobility was found to be voltage- and tension-dependent (Science 2000). [Sections collected by Hong-Bo Zhao, image and movies rendered by John Kesterson, composition of final image and adaptation to quicktime movies, below, by Mas Takashima]. 3D Quicktime Video Movies: The following quick time movies show segments of the above cell. The left and right movies are different renderings of the apical end where the stereocilia bundle is found. The dye stains the plasma membrane and as the image rotates the space left by the unstained internal portions of the cell can be observed. The middle movie is from the basal or synaptic end of the cell. A cluster of heavily stained synaptic terminals rotates with the cell
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