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Powering Down Hearing

Hair cells of the inner ear regulate their mitochondria to optimise function

10 April 2023

Powering Down Hearing

Your hearing depends on hair cells in your inner ear. When loud noises or ageing destroys these cells, it's their mitochondria – the powerhouses of your cells – that are involved in their downfall. Moreover, faults in over 30 genes key to mitochondrial activity are known to cause deafness. Yet little is known about hair cell mitochondria biology. Researchers now investigate in zebrafish. Using serial block-face scanning electron microscopy, they found mitochondria are more densely packed in hair cells (pictured, white) compared with support cells. These mitochondria also had a distinct architecture – multiple small mitochondria in the upper halves of cells and fine networks in the lower halves. In zebrafish with a faulty opa1 gene – a gene known to be mutated in human deafness – mitochondria function was disrupted. In mutants where hair cell mechanics were disrupted, so too was mitochondria architecture. This furthers our understanding of mitochondria-related deafness.

Written by Lux Fatimathas

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