Abstract
Utricle of the mongolian gerbil was embedded in Spurr and the thin section was made and labeled with colloidal gold conjugated with hyaluronidase. Normal otolith was labeled with hyaluronidase-gold intensively but degenerated one was labeled less intensively or was unlabeled. In the sensory epithelia, the secretory granules in the supporting cell were labeled strongly. In the dark cell degenerated otolith was observed, which is labeled or unlabeled with hyaluronidase-gold. These data suggest that otolith is secreted from the supporting cell, maturated, degenerated and absorbed in the dark cell. Hyaluronic acid is likely to be involved in these processes, especially in the generation step.
