2012 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Analyses of physiological roles of cochlear endolymph and search for the diseases caused by endolymphatic dysfunction.
| Project/Area Number |
22390047
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
General pharmacology
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| Research Institution | Niigata University (2011-2012)
Osaka University (2010) |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha) |
KURACHI Yoshihisa 大阪大学, 医学系研究科, 教授 (30142011)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2010 – 2012
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| Keywords | チャネル / 輸送系 / 感覚器 / 内耳 / 内リンパ液 / イオン / 粘性 |
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| Research Abstract |
In this study we focused on cochlear “endolymph”, an uniqueextracellular solution essential for hearing. We attempted to measure physical propertyand constituents of the endolymph. We also planned to elucidate physiologicalsignificance of the feature of this fluid and its involvement in hearing loss. For thesepurposes, we tried to purely harvest the endolymph with double-barreled microelectrode,but we could not obtain sufficient amount of the fluid. Ion-transport in the cochleacould affect structure and function of the molecules exhibiting physical property of theendolymph. We therefore analyzed K+-transport throughout the cochlear and demonstratedthe underlying mechanism by experimental approaches. On the basis of these results, wefurther developed computational model to simulate cochlear K+-transport and theelectrochemical property of the endolymph. By using this model, we theoretically showedthat one form of deafness would be caused by disorder of local ion-transport in thecochlea.
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