Transient capacitance changes recorded from vestibular type I hair cells are produced by GK,L gating and do not involve neurotransmitter exocytosis

Head movements are detected and signalled to primary sensory neurons by vestibular types I and II hair cells. Signal transmission involves glutamate exocytosis from hair cells, which is triggered by Ca2+ inflow through voltage-gated CaV1.3 Ca2+ channels. In a previous study on mice, we reported a Ca2+-dependent exocytosis in both hair cell types, measured as a sustained change in cell membrane capacitance (ΔCm) following cell depolarization, which was significantly smaller in type I than in type II hair cells. By contrast, only type I hair cells showed a large transient ΔCm, which was still present in CaV1.3−/− mouse type I hair cells. Here we investigated the nature of this transient ΔCm. We found that it was unaffected by 10 mm intracellular EGTA, which blocked most of the sustained exocytosis in these cells, demonstrating its insensitivity to intracellular Ca2+. Moreover the amplitude of the transient ΔCm correlated with the degree of activation of the low-voltage activated outward rectifying K+ conductance, GK,L, expressed by type I, but not type II hair cells. Finally the sign and kinetics of the transient ΔCm changed based on voltage steps activating or deactivating GK,L. These findings are consistent with the transient ΔCm arising from the mobilization of charges during the gating of K,L channels, while excluding fast transient neurotransmitter exocytosis. Its large amplitude can be explained by the high resistance of the calyceal synaptic cleft since it was significantly reduced in Caspr−/− mice, which show a significantly larger synaptic cleft compared to wild type mice.