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Ruth Anne Eatock, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Otolaryngology and Neurobiology

Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary
Eaton -Peabody Laboratory
243 Charles Street
Boston, MA 02114
Telephone: 617 573-4447
Fax: 617-720-4408
Email: eatock@meei.harvard.edu
Predocs: 0 Postdocs: 2 Completed PhD's: 4

  

We are interested in hair cells as models of several kinds of processing by cells of the nervous system. First, they are models of sensory transduction in general and mechanotransduction specifically, more accessible than other mechanosensors such as somatosensory nerve endings. Second, hair cells have provided powerful examples of regulation of ion channel repertoires to create signals – in this case, receptor potentials. For example, hair cells express diverse K+ channels in specific complements in order to produce particular qualities and frequencies of tuning. Third, hair cells are relatively large, accessible presynaptic terminals that release glutamate, like most excitatory synapses in the brain, but which are specialized for unusually high rates of transmission.  Finally, hair cells, with their systematically varying morphology and ion channel repertoires, lend themselves well to the study of how cells differentiate during development.

Although we work on diverse hair cell epithelia, our principal model preparation has been the rodent utricular epithelium, which senses linear head movements. Mammalian vestibular epithelia have unusual synaptic diversity: afferent neurons form large cup-shaped synaptic endings (calyces) on type I hair cells, and more conventional small endings (boutons) on type II hair cells. Details of synaptic morphology co-vary with other morphological and ion channel properties as functions of location in the epithelium. We use biophysical and molecular tools to characterize the ion channel properties. We then use molecular methods to identify the ion channels and modeling to identify the functional significance of distinctive ion channel properties.

 

References:

  • Rüsch A, Lysakowski A, Eatock RA (1998) Postnatal development of type I and type II hair cells in the mouse utricle: Acquisition of voltage-gated conductances and differentiated morphology. J Neurosci 18: 7487-7501.
  • Chen JW-Y, Eatock RA (2000) A major potassium conductance in type I hair cells from rat semicircular canals: Characterization and modulation by nitric oxide. J Neurophysiol 84: 139-151.
  • Vollrath MA and Eatock RA (2003) Time course and extent of mechanotransducer adaptation in mouse utricular hair cells: Comparison with frog saccular hair cells. J Neurophysiol 90:2676-2689.
  • Hurley KM, Gaboyard S, Zhong M, Price SD, Wooltorton JRA, Lysakowski A, Eatock RA (2006) M-like K+ currents in type I hair cells and calyx afferent endings of the developing rat utricle. J Neurosci 26(40):10253-10269.
  • Wooltorton JRA, Gaboyard S, Hurley KM, Price SD, Bao H, Garcia JL, Lysakowski A, Eatock RA (2006) Developmental changes in two voltage-dependent sodium currents in utricular hair cells. J.Neurophysiol in press.