Umeå University Medical Dissertations

6 ORIGINAL PAPERS 7 ABBREVIATIONS 8 INTRODUCTION 9 Presentation 9 History 11 Cochlear anatomy 12 Cochlear physiology 14 Cochlear innervation 16 The sensory auditory systems 19 The spiral ganglion 21 Specific characteristics of the human spiral ganglion 23 Tight and gap junctions 27 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDIES 29 MATERIAL AND METHODS 30 RESULTS 36 Preservation 36 Light microscopic studies and TEM studies in papers I, II, and III 36 TEM study, paper IV 39 Study on synaptophysin immunoreactivity, paper III 40 Studies on immunoreactivity of ZO-1, Cx26 and Cx43, paper V 41 DISCUSSION 42 Preservation and the question of a representative material 42 The specific characteristics of the human spiral ganglion 42 Membrane specializations between the type 1 cells 43 Synapses on the neurons in the SG 45 Multisynaptic complexes 46 Neural interaction between SG cells 47 Tight and gap junctions 48 A possible different functional role of human SG 49 CONCLUSIONS 50 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 51 REFERENCES 52 PAPER I-V