Reply from Noah Gray

Noah Gray — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 15:38:49 -0000

FM dyes can non-specifically enter cells through any active or constitutive endocytic pathway, so it is possible for some fluorescent signal to be derived from these sources. There are ways to specifically disrupt endocytosis on a short-term basis which would not affect channel opening, so the authors could design an experiment that would rule out the endocytic contribution.

Reply from Damien Samways

Damien Samways — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:29:39 -0000

I’m surprised this didn’t pick up a few more comments. It’s very exciting stuff.

The FM1-43 functional study obviously has its limitations as an indicator of mechanotransduction channel activity. Especially given that the dye appears to enter the hair bundles without mechanical stimulation. It’s not my area of expertise, but isn’t mechanotransduction channel gating dependent on fully functional tip link organisation? It would be interesting to see if tip link-related proteins are also unregulated in these cells, or if any are visible in some of the hair bundle EM shots.

In fairness, the investigators probably only wanted a quick-and-dirty functional study to round off the paper. A more detailed e-phys study will probably be in the pipeline.

The images are highly compelling, nevertheless.

Recent replies to "JOURNAL CLUB: Manufacturing New Hair Cells Is For the Birds"

Reply from Noah Gray

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