Morphological and functional aspects of two different types of hair cells in the goldfish sacculus

1. With the use of whole-cell mode of the patch-clamp method, we examined the electrical responses of hair cells enzymatically isolated from the goldfish sacculus. 2. Hair cells from the rostral saccule had a short cell body and were ovoidal or eggplantlike in shape, whereas hair cells from the caudal saccule had a variable shape. Many had a longer cell body and were cylindrical or gourd-like in shape, but some short hair cells were also present in the caudal saccule. 3. The short hair cells had a resting potential of about -75 mV. In current-clamp experiments, these hair cells elicited damped oscillatory-potential changes of a relatively small amplitude in response to a depolarizing current. A current in the opposite direction produced a slow hyperpolarization, much larger in amplitude. 4. Resonant frequency of the short, or the oscillatory, type of hair cells ranged from 40 to 200 Hz or higher. However, resonance was generally of a poor quality as compared with that noted for hair cells in the turtle cochlea or frog sacculus. 5. The long hair cells had a resting potential of -90 to -100 mV. In current-clamp experiments, these hair cells elicited an all-or-none spike approximately 50 mV in amplitude in response to a depolarizing current. The spike was usually followed by a plateau, which was maintained for the duration of the depolarizing pulse. In some hair cells, damped slow oscillatory waves were evoked at a rate of 5-15 Hz. On the other hand, a hyperpolarizing current produced potential changes much smaller in amplitude. 6. Voltage-clamp experiments showed that Ca2+-activated K+ channel and A-current, especially its high-threshold subclass, were involved in the generation of outward rectification in the oscillatory-type hair cells. On the other hand, Na+, in addition to Ca2+, was involved in the generation of spike in the spike-type hair cells. Spike potentials were elicited even in the presence of tetrodotoxin (TTX), but the rate of rise was slower as compared with the intact spikes. 7. The spike-type hair cells had an inwardly rectifying K+ channel similar to that noted in the tunicate egg and chick vestibular hair cell. However, the oscillatory-type hair cells had an inwardly rectifying channel similar to the hyperpolarization-activated current, Ih, of the rod inner segment, or sinoatrial nodal cell, or lacked the inwardly rectifying channel. Differences in the resting membrane potential between the oscillatory- and spike-type hair cells are probably related to differences in the inwardly rectifying channels. 8. Effects of sound stimulation were simulated by injecting a half-wave rectified sinusoidal current of various frequencies.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)