The auditory system transduces sound-evoked vibrations over a range of input sound pressure levels spanning six orders of magnitude. An important component of the system mediating this impressive dynamic range is established in the cochlear sensory epithelium, where functional subtypes of cochlear nerve fibers differ in threshold sensitivity, and spontaneous discharge rate (SR), by more than a ...

The complex mechanical properties of biomaterials such as hair, horn, skin, or bone are determined by the architecture of the underlying fibrous bionetworks. Although much is known about the influence of the cytoskeleton on the mechanics of isolated cells, this has been less studied in tridimensional tissues. We used the hair follicle as a model to link changes in the keratin network compositio...

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of Ecklonia cava, a marine alga native to Jeju Island in Korea, on the promotion of hair growth. When vibrissa follicles were cultured in the presence of E. cava enzymatic extract (which contains more than 35% of dieckol) for 21 days, E. cava enzymatic extract increased hair-fiber length. In addition, after topical application of the 0.5% E. cava ...

Dermal papillae (DPs) control the formation of hair shafts. In clinical settings, colchicine (CLC) induces patients' hair shedding. Compared to the control, the ex vivo hair fiber elongation of organ cultured vibrissa hair follicles (HFs) declined significantly after seven days of CLC treatment. The cultured DP cells (DPCs) were used as the experimental model to study the influence of CLC on th...

A mammalian hair fiber consists of the medulla, cortex and cuticle from the center to the outside in this order [1]. The major mass of hair fiber is located in the cortical region, which mainly consists of keratin filaments and matrix proteins. On the outside of the cortical region, there is cuticle which has about 5 μm in thickness and consists of about 10 keratinized sheet-like-cells. There a...

Fiber diameter, a quantitative trait, is controlled by minor effect polygenes. Keratin-associated proteins (KRTAPs) are an important part of hair, and their rich polymorphisms facilitate the mining cashmere trait molecular markers. In this study, Jiangnan Tibetan goats were taken as research object; multiplex PCR exome sequencing technology used to identify exon regional KRTAP15-1, KRTAP13.1, K...

The top panel of Figure 1 shows a schematic diagram of the normal peripheral auditory system. The ear canal and ossicles (small bones) of the middle ear transmit acoustic signals to the cochlea where they produce a travelling wave moving from base to apex along the basilar membrane. Displacement of a segment of the basilar membrane increases the likelihood that the nerve fibers innervating hair...