Degenerative Patterns In The Aging Human Vestibular Neuro-Epithelia

Abstract

Quantitative analyses of the vestibular hair cell populations from individuals of different ages were performed using the surface specimen technique. There is as much as a 20% reduction of the hair cell populations of the maculae with increasing age. The conesponding figure of the reduction found in the cristae ampullares from old individusls is about 40 %. In macula utriculi a pronoanced degezeration is found in a small, medial area. Otherwise, the reduction is uniform throughout the macultl, as is also the case with macula sacculi. The cristae ampullares exhibit a more pronounced degeneration in a central area on the summit of the cristae than in the periphery. It has been shown by other authors that there is a reduced vestibular excitability in old Feople. The effect on equilibrium of the vestibnlar degeneration described in this paper is difficult to establish, but there is every reason to believe that there is an interrclation between sensory cell loss and reduced vestibular excitability.