| First Author | Osman AA | Year | 2008 |
| Journal | Mol Cell Neurosci | Volume | 38 |
| Issue | 2 | Pages | 153-69 |
| PubMed ID | 18420419 | Mgi Jnum | J:136914 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:3797335 | Doi | 10.1016/j.mcn.2008.02.008 |
| Citation | Osman AA, et al. (2008) Muscle-like nicotinic receptor accessory molecules in sensory hair cells of the inner ear. Mol Cell Neurosci 38(2):153-69 |
| abstractText | Nothing is known about the regulation of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) in hair cells of the inner ear. MuSK, rapsyn and RIC-3 are accessory molecules associated with muscle and brain nAChR function. We demonstrate that these accessory molecules are expressed in the inner ear raising the possibility of a muscle-like mechanism for clustering and assembly of nAChRs in hair cells. We focused our investigations on rapsyn and RIC-3. Rapsyn interacts with the cytoplasmic loop of nAChR alpha9 subunits but not nAChR alpha10 subunits. Although rapsyn and RIC-3 increase nAChR alpha9 expression, rapsyn plays a greater role in receptor clustering while RIC-3 is important for acetylcholine-induced calcium responses. Our data suggest that RIC-3 facilitates receptor function, while rapsyn enhances receptor clustering at the cell surface. |
