Integrity of the membranous labyrinth barrier system is of critical importance, which promotes inner ear homeostasis and maintains its features. The membranous labyrinth barrier system is divided into several subsets ...Integrity of the membranous labyrinth barrier system is of critical importance, which promotes inner ear homeostasis and maintains its features. The membranous labyrinth barrier system is divided into several subsets of barriers which, although independent from each other, are interrelated. The same substance may demonstrate different permeability characteristics through different barriers and under different conditions, while different substances can have different permeability features even in the same barrier under the same condition. All parts of the mem-branous labyrinth barrier structure, including their morphology, enzymes and channel proteins, and theirs permeability characteristics under various physiological and pathological conditions are reviewed in this paper. Infections, noise exposure, ototoxicity may all increase perme-ability of the barriers and lead to disturbances in inner ear homeostasis. Copyright ? 2015 The Authors. Production & hosting by Elsevier (Singapore) Pte Ltd On behalf of PLA General Hospital Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).展开更多
文摘Integrity of the membranous labyrinth barrier system is of critical importance, which promotes inner ear homeostasis and maintains its features. The membranous labyrinth barrier system is divided into several subsets of barriers which, although independent from each other, are interrelated. The same substance may demonstrate different permeability characteristics through different barriers and under different conditions, while different substances can have different permeability features even in the same barrier under the same condition. All parts of the mem-branous labyrinth barrier structure, including their morphology, enzymes and channel proteins, and theirs permeability characteristics under various physiological and pathological conditions are reviewed in this paper. Infections, noise exposure, ototoxicity may all increase perme-ability of the barriers and lead to disturbances in inner ear homeostasis. Copyright ? 2015 The Authors. Production & hosting by Elsevier (Singapore) Pte Ltd On behalf of PLA General Hospital Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
