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Updated: May 24, 2026

Stereocilia Bundle Imaging with Nanoscale Resolution in Live Mammalian Auditory Hair Cells
Published on: January 21, 2021
Identification of the porosome complex in the hair cell
Dennis G Drescher1, Won Jin Cho, Marian J Drescher
1Department of Otolaryngology, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI 48201, U.S.A.
Abstract:
Porosomes are proposed to be the universal secretory machinery of the cell plasma membrane, where membrane-bound secretory vesicles transiently dock and fuse to expel their contents to the extracellular space during cell secretion. In neurons, porosomes are manifested as cup-shaped lipoprotein structures in the presynaptic membrane, 12-17 nm in diameter and possessing a central plug. Hair cells of hearing and balance secrete transmitter from synaptic vesicles in sensory signal transduction, but it has not previously been demonstrated that these mechanosensory cells possess porosome structures that could participate in the secretory process. In the current study, we provide, for the first time, evidence obtained using transmission electron microscopy that porosome structures indeed exist in the hair cell, suggesting a mechanism of hair-cell transmitter secretion markedly different from that of the exocytotic process currently proposed.
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