An important characteristic of the morphogenesis of glandular structures is the narrow width of the apical pole compared to the basal pole of cells [ 2].
In Caco-2/TC7 cells, after a 24 h incubation with lipid micelles, lipid droplets are mainly localized at the basal pole of cells, but some of them are localized in the supranuclear region (Supplementary Figures S1A and S1B and Chateau et al., 2005).
Under these conditions, confocal microscopy analysis revealed that the lipid droplets, visualized with Bodipy 493/503, were mainly localized at the basal pole of the cells (see Supplementary Figures S1A and S1B at http://www.biolcell.org/boc/103/boc1030499add.htm) and were decorated with PLIN-2 in discrete patches.
The patches of Rtls localization were most often located near the basal pole of each cell, but were sometimes detected at the apical pole or along the lateral regions of the cell.
The receptor potential activates the Ca2+ channels in the basal pole of the cell that trigger the release of neurotransmitter onto afferent terminals (Glowatzki and Fuchs, 2002), so that sound information is conveyed to the higher auditory brain areas.
This can initially be recognized as a rounding of the basal pole of the crypt cells, which precedes the rounding of the completely isolated cell (15).
A clear retraction of the basement membrane was found from the basal pole of the epithelial cells at the tip of the villi (Figure 3A, B).
Studying vibrotome sections of the mouse organ of Corti with confocal and scanning electron microscopy we found that the basal pole of every Deiters cell, independently of their position in the organ of Corti and along the cochlear spiral, attached to the basilar membrane within a 15.1 ± 0.3 μm-wide stripe running the length of the cochlear spiral adjacent to the row of outer pillar cells.
Besides Ca2+ influx through voltage-gated Ca2+ channels of the basolateral plasma membrane, two other mechanisms, both implicated in the efferent control of hair cell function [ 140, 141], may promote an increase of intracellular free Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+i) at the basal pole of the hair cell.
Furthermore, the morphological and immunohistochemical evaluation revealed an induction of apoptosis in the supporting cells of the organ of Corti and glutamate excitotoxicity at the basal pole of the inner hair cells as key pathophysiological mechanisms potentially explaining the functional impairment.
No vacuolization was seen at the basal pole of the inner hair cells.
