AN ORIGINAL ORGANOTYPIC CULTURE METHOD TO STUDY THE ORGAN OF CORTI OFTHE NEWBORN RAT INVITRO

The inner ear growth is related to several factors which are not yet w ell known. In order to study the effect of growth factors on the devel opment of the auditory receptor cells, we have chosen first to establi sh an in vitro model of the inner ear. Newborn rats were selected as t he source of tissue because the inner ear is immature enough at this s tage of development for studying some relations between receptors and their innervation. Until recently, the Maximov slide assembly techniqu e was the only organ culture system available and silver neurofibrilla ry methods were used to stain the nervous structures. These are diffic ult and time-consuming techniques. With the use of a collagen gel drop floating in the culture medium, we have developed a simple and reliab le method. Furthermore, an immunohistochemical fiber-staining techniqu e with anti-neurofilament and histochemical staining technique with ph alloidin allows us to check in a few days the organotypy at the spiral ganglion and hair cell levels. This floating drop method gave us some preliminary information about the spiral neuron cells which survived.