Primary culture of neurospheres obtained from fetal mouse central nervous system and generation of inner ear hair cell immunophenotypes in vitro

Abstract

AbstractObjective:To investigate whether hair cell immunophenotypes can be derived from the central nervous system.Design:We established in vitro cell cultures from embryonic day 14.5 fetal rat brain tissue, and analysed changes in the immunohistochemical features of these cell cultures following differentiation.Result:The immature neural progenitors obtained from the fetal mouse central nervous system generated cell immunophenotypes which expressed epitopes of the hair cell marker proteins myosin VIIa and Brn-3c and the supporting cell marker pan-cytokeratin.Conclusion:Neural progenitors have the potential to differentiate into inner ear hair cell and supporting cell phenotypes, and thus may be a useful material for cell transplantation therapy aiming to replace damaged inner ear hair cells.