cells Article Postnatal Development of the Subcellular Structures and Purinergic Signaling of Deiters’ Cells along the Tonotopic Axis of the Cochlea Eszter Berekméri 1,2, Ádám Fekete 3,László Köles 1 and Tibor Zelles 1,4,* 1 Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacotherapy, Semmelweis University, Nagyvárad tér 4., 1089 Budapest, Hungary;
[email protected] (E.B.);
[email protected] (L.K.) 2 Department of Ecology, University of Veterinary Medicine, Rottenbiller u. 50., 1077 Budapest, Hungary 3 Program in Neurosciences and Mental Health, The Hospital for Sick Children, 555 University Ave, Toronto, ON M5G 1X8, Canada;
[email protected] 4 Department of Pharmacology, Institute of Experimental Medicine, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Szigony u. 43., 1083 Budapest, Hungary * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +36-1-210-2930 (ext. 56297); Fax: +36-1-210-4412 Received: 3 September 2019; Accepted: 15 October 2019; Published: 17 October 2019 Abstract: Exploring the development of the hearing organ helps in the understanding of hearing and hearing impairments and it promotes the development of the regenerative approaches-based therapeutic efforts. The role of supporting cells in the development of the organ of Corti is much less elucidated than that of the cochlear sensory receptor cells. The use of our recently published method of single-cell electroporation loading of a fluorescent Ca2+ probe in the mouse hemicochlea preparation provided an appropriate means to investigate the Deiters’ cells at the subcellular level in two different cochlear turns (apical, middle). Deiters’ cell’s soma and process elongated, and the process became slimmer by maturation without tonotopic preference.