Linked Life Data

19679307

Source:http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/id/19679307

Statements in which the resource exists as a subject.
PredicateObject
rdf:type
lifeskim:mentions
pubmed:issue
13
pubmed:dateCreated
2009-9-7
pubmed:abstractText
The stereocilium is the basic sensory unit of nature's mechanotransducers, which include the cochlear and vestibular organs. In noisy environments, stereocilia display high sensitivity to miniscule stimuli, effectively dealing with a situation that is a design challenge in micro systems. The gating spring hypothesis suggests that the mechanical stiffness of stereocilia bundle is softened by tip-link gating in combination with active bundle movement, contributing to the nonlinear amplification of miniscule stimuli. To demonstrate that the amplification is induced mechanically by the gating as hypothesized, we developed a biomimetic model of stereocilia and fabricated the model at the macro scale. The model consists of an inverted pendulum array with bistable buckled springs at its tips, which represent the mechanically gated ion channel. Model simulations showed that at the moment of gating, instantaneous stiffness softening generates an increase in response magnitude, which then sequentially occurs as the number of gating increases. This amplification mechanism appeared to be robust to the change of model parameters. Experimental data from the fabricated macro model also showed a significant increase in the open probability and pendulum deflection at the region having a smaller input magnitude. The results demonstrate that the nonlinear amplification of miniscule stimuli is mechanically produced by stiffness softening from channel gating.
pubmed:language
eng
pubmed:journal
pubmed:citationSubset
IM
pubmed:status
MEDLINE
pubmed:month
Sep
pubmed:issn
1873-2380
pubmed:author
pubmed:issnType
Electronic
pubmed:day
18
pubmed:volume
42
pubmed:owner
NLM
pubmed:authorsComplete
Y
pubmed:pagination
2158-64
pubmed:meshHeading
pubmed:year
2009
pubmed:articleTitle
A mechanical model of the gating spring mechanism of stereocilia.
pubmed:affiliation
Department of Mechanical Engineering, KAIST, 335 Gwahangno, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-701, Republic of Korea.
pubmed:publicationType
Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't