title: Atypical innervation pattern of human vestibular hair cells.
abstract: Human vestibular sensory epithelia of macula utriculi were examined in 3 cases with acoustic neurinoma by intermediate voltage electron microscope. The innervation pattern of vestibular hair cells was studied by means of computer aided three-dimensional reconstruction technique. The sensory epithelia were fairly well preserved. Most of type I and all of type II hair cells appeared normal. However, some type I hair cells were incompletely surrounded by nerve calyces and received direct contact from the efferent nerve endings. These type I hair cells were also innervated by a few neighboring afferent nerve calyces. These atypical type I hair cells constituted 5-8% of the total number of hair cells.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Japan.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Morita
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Komatsuzaki
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kanda
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tatsuoka
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Chiba
mesh_terms: D046508:Culture Techniques; D004428:Ear Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology; D007758:Ear, Inner / Q000473:pathology; D006198:Hair Cells, Auditory / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D006801:Humans; D009464:Neuroma, Acoustic / Q000473:pathology; D009476:Neurons, Efferent / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D014722:Vestibule, Labyrinth / Q000503:physiopathology*