Elastic moduli of the piezoelectric cochlear outer hair cell membrane

摘要

The outer hair cell is a specialized cell in the mammalian cochlea, believed to amplify incoming sound waves. This amplification is associated with the outer hair cell's electromotility, a unique cellular phenomenon of voltage-dependent length changes. Outer hair cell properties can be described in terms of the piezoelectric relationships, and the elastic moduli are a key part of them. We revisit the problem of estimating the elastic moduli of the outer hair cell composite membrane (wall) where two methods have previously been proposed. We analyze the two methods, while taking into account experimental ranges of the measured parameters. We have shown that cell stiffness is the critical parameter that determines the difference between the method predictions, and we have found a range of stiffness where the results are reasonably close. The elastic moduli corresponding to this range can be recommended for estimation of the characteristics of the piezoelectric model. [References: 26]