In order to identify hair cell specific genes, it is essential to obtain isolated hair cells in
quantity. While whole-cell recordings have been made from isolated inner hair cells (IHCs)
from guinea pigs, detailed methods for obtaining a fairly large amount of isolated inner hair
cells have not been published. Here we describe a protocol that can yield a fairly large
amount of isolated gerbil IHCs. This technique can provide sufficient numbers of solitary
IHCs for either electrophysiological studies of the cell's membrane properties or identifying …