Electrically driven motor in the outer hair cell: effect of a mechanical constraint

The outer hair cell has a unique voltage-dependent motility associated with charge transfer across the plasma membrane. To examine mechanical changes in the membrane that are coupled with such charge movements, we digested the undercoating of the membrane with trypsin. We inflated the cell into a sphere and constrained the surface area by not allowing volume changes. We found that this constraint on the membrane area sharply reduced motor-associated charge movement across the membrane, demonstrating that charge transfer is directly coupled with membrane area change. This electromechanical coupling in the plasma membrane must be the key element for the motile mechanism of the outer hair cell.