Rationale: The paper characterizes the expression of EAAT4 and EAAT5 in the vestibular type I hair cells. These cells have post-synaptic calycal endings which restrict the diffusion of glutamate following endocytosis, so that uptake of glutamate by supporting cells is not plausible.
Figure 5: immunogold-labelling electron microscopy leads to the finding that the hair cells, as well as the calycal membrane facing the synaptic cleft, both harbor EAAT4 and EAAT5, supporting the notion that the transporters are located at both the pre- and postsynaptic membranes.
Table 1 presents the quantification of the immuogold labeling.
Figure 6 is a summarizing scheme.. Experimental description: Experiments were performed on young adult (3–5 week old) Swiss mice of both sexes in accordance with French Ministry of Agriculture regulations and the European Community Council