The organ of Corti

A view looking down onto the organ of Corti from the direction of the stereocilia.
The cells are stained in yellow with a membrane dye, FM 1-43. The surrounding fluid is stained in red with the dye Dextran Oregon Green 514. The three rows of outer hair cells (OHC) are seen in the lower part, and the row of inner hair cells (IHC) in the upper part of the figure. The picture was made by Dr. M. Nowotny using the two-photon confocal laser-scanning microscope. With this set-up we are performing Ca²⁺ imaging experiments, membrane re-cycling observations and morphological studies. © 2005 A. W. Gummer.