Balancing Act

We take balancing for granted most of our lives, but there's much more to it than meets the eye – or rather, ear. Our inner ear has three fluid-filled canals that help us sense which way's up or down. Structures called cristae are covered in tiny hairs that sense these angular head movements, but as we age, they don’t function as well, leading to increased chance of falling over. Understanding how these cristae are formed may be able to help slow their degeneration and stop us toppling over. By dissecting cristae in mice, researchers uncovered what cell types are present at each stage of development and where they're found. This video shows a series of slices showing some of the different cells that make up the cristae structure. These include unique support cells (magenta), cells expressing a protein called Sox2 which helps convert support cells into hair cells (white) and cells that connect to our brains (yellow).

Written by Sophie Arthur

Sophie Arthur

former Science Communications Officer MRC LMS

Formerly a stem cell biologist, Sophie has since moved into science communication working at the MRC LMS. She also writes an award winning science and education blog Soph talks science.

Website

• Video from work by Brent A Wilkerson and colleagues
• Department of Biological Structure, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
• Video originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in eLife, May 2021