Their experiments revealed a class of DNA control elements known as “enhancers” that, after injury, amplify the production of a protein called ATOH1, which in turn induces a suite of genes required to make sensory cells of the inner ear.
Genetic Reprogramming Regenerates Lost Hair Cells in the Mature Mouse Inner Ear
Our results suggest that mature cochlear supporting cells can be reprogrammed into sensory hair cells, providing a possible target for hair cell regeneration in mammals.
A Dual Method for Inner Ear Hair Cell Regrowth in Zebrafish
These findings reveal a previously unrecognized mechanism of hair cell regeneration with implications for how hair cells may be encouraged to regenerate in the mammalian inner ear.
A New Mouse Model for Hearing Loss
A challenge in studying hair cell regeneration has been creating consistent and reliable ways to damage hair cells in laboratory mice. Overcoming this limitation, we developed a more uniform and effective method for hair cell death using the surgical delivery of a sisomicin antibiotic solution directly into the mouse inner ear.
A Cell Type–Specific Approach to Detail the Role of a Small Molecule in Hair Cells
Interestingly, some of the genes that were more active in the variant hair cells are typically more active in the supporting cells than in the hair cells. It could be that when miR-96 is a variant, some genes more specific to supporting cells, and which are typically kept turned off in hair cells, incorrectly become activated in hair cells.
Cochlear Organoids Reveal How Supporting Cells Differentiate Into Hair Cells
These details gleaned from this regenerative process in the mouse organoid provides insights into how mammalian supporting cells could be reprogrammed into hair cells.
Genetic Reprogramming Converts Nonsensory Cells into Sensory Cells in the Mature Cochlea
We have artificially expressed three key hair cell fate promoting proteins in nonsensory cells of adult mice, and found that a significant number of these cells will convert into cells resembling hair cells. This offers a potential strategy for hair cell regeneration.
Mathematical Analysis of Zebrafish Cell Shape Shows Connection With Cell Function
Our results demonstrate the utility of using 3D cell shape features to characterize, compare, and classify cells in a living, developing organism.
An Essential Signaling Cascade for Hair Cell Regeneration in Birds
This work provides a new starting point to investigate the natural triggers of hair cell regeneration in birds. We also identified novel genes that drive hair cell regeneration in the chicken inner ear. These novel genes will be key for investigating their potential role in triggering a change in supporting cells in mammals, in the damaged mouse or human cochlea.
Mouse Studies Tune Into Hearing Regeneration
In the non-sensory supporting cells of the inner ear, key genes required for conversion to sensory cells are shut off through a process known as epigenetic silencing. By studying how the genes are shut off, we begin to understand how we might turn them back on to regenerate hearing.