ABSTRACT
Primary auditory neurons (ANs) in the mammalian cochlea play a critical role in hearing as they transmit auditory information in the form of electrical signals from mechanosensory cochlear hair cells in the inner ear to the brainstem. Their progressive degeneration is associated with disease conditions, excessive noise exposure and aging. Replacement of ANs, which lack the ability to regenerate spontaneously, would have a significant impact on research and advancement in cochlear implants in addition to the amelioration of hearing impairment. The aim of this study was to induce a neuronal phenotype in endogenous non-neural cells in the cochlea, which is the essential organ of hearing. Overexpression of a neurogenic basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor, Ascl1, in the cochlear non-sensory epithelial cells induced neurons at high efficiency at embryonic, postnatal and juvenile stages. Moreover, induced neurons showed typical properties of neuron morphology, gene expression and electrophysiology. Our data indicate that Ascl1 alone or Ascl1 and NeuroD1 is sufficient to reprogram cochlear non-sensory epithelial cells into functional neurons. Generation of neurons from non-neural cells in the cochlea is an important step for the regeneration of ANs in the mature mammalian cochlea.
Subject(s)
Auditory Pathways/cytology , Cell Differentiation/physiology , Cochlea/cytology , Neurons/cytology , Regeneration/physiology , Animals , Auditory Pathways/physiology , Cell Count , Cochlea/physiology , Hearing/physiology , Mice , Neurons/physiologyABSTRACT
Multiple light scattering is an important issue in modern laser diffraction spectrometry. Most laser particle sizers do not account for multiple light scattering in a disperse medium under investigation. This causes an underestimation of the particle sizes in the case of high concentrations of scatterers. The retrieval accuracy is improved if the measured data are processed with multiple-scattering algorithms that treat multiple light scattering in a disperse medium. We evaluate the influence of multiple light scattering on light transmitted by scattering layers. The relationships among different theories to account for multiple light scattering in laser particle sizing are considered.
ABSTRACT
Measurements of the angular spectrum of light transmitted through turbid slabs with monodispersions of polystyrene spheres have been performed. The results obtained are compared with theoretical calculations, based on the small-angle approximation of the radiative transfer theory. The experimental data and the theoretical results coincide with a high accuracy, which allows us to develop the laser diffraction spectroscopy of optically thick light-scattering layers.
