Postmortem Changes in the Vestibular and Cochlear Receptors (Guinea Pig)

Abstract

Autolysis is initiated immediately after death. Since Nager and Yoshii¹ called attention to postmortem changes and the fact that they appear in the inner ear before they are observed in other structures, intravital fixation has been adopted as the best procedure for histological preparations in experimental animals. Nevertheless, confusion about what is meant by normal inner ear still exists. In addition to artifacts, agonal and postmortem changes, position, size, and shape of cells and membranes in living and fixed tissue have been the center of many debates. The investigation to be described here was primarily an attempt to obtain more knowledge about the sequence of autolytic changes of the inner ear in the guinea pig, as seen under light microscopy. During the histologic study of the guinea pig temporal bones, three additional points become apparent: first, to report the pathologic changes which may be found in young, normal guinea