Induction of Functional Hair-Cell-Like Cells from Mouse Cochlear Multipotent Cells

Figure 1

Characterization of spheres from the cochlear epithelia of newborn mice. (a) The cochlear sensory epithelia of P0 ICR mice were dissociated into single cells and cultured in suspension plates for 5 days to form spheres in presence of EGF, bFGF, and IGF-1, as indicated. (b) A bright-field view of a typical sphere generated after 5 days of in vitro culture. (c) Sphere cells expressed the neuronal stem cell marker Nestin (green). (d) Shortly after dissociation, most sphere cells were immunoreactive for 5-bromo-2′-deoxyuridine (BrdU) incorporation into the genomic DNA (red, left). (e) The nuclei of the sphere cells were stained with DAPI (blue). (f) The merging of BrdU immunostaining (red) and DAPI staining (blue).

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