Atypical innervation pattern of human vestibular hair cells.
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.
Morita
I
I
Department of Otolaryngology, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Japan.
Komatsuzaki
A
A
Kanda
T
T
Tatsuoka
H
H
Chiba
T
T
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*