Hearing & Balance: Crash Course A&P #17
Added 2015-05-05 21:52:34 +0000 UTC
Comments
About the mechanically gated Na+ channel on 6:46...While a lot of mechanosensitive cells do use Na+ for graded potentials, the auditory mechanotranduction channels relies fairly heavily on K+, which is highly enriched in the endolymph. It's also an unusual feature of the (mammalian) endolymph to have so much K+, or for it to maintain such a positive endolymphatic potential so as to be pretty cytotoxic in other situations. The endolymph seems to be that way to exaggerate the graded potentials of the hair cell. And not to mention Ca2+ permeability, and how it plays a role in channel adaptation. tl;dr, IMO it's more accurate to say mechanically gated ion channel. A+ for everything else, A+ as in extra awesome.
Darmok Anjalad
2015-05-06 05:56:14 +0000 UTC
