van der Valk, Wouter H.van Beelen, Edward S. A.Steinhart, Matthew R.Nist-Lund, CarlOsorio, Danielde Groot, John C. M. J.Sun, Liangvan Benthem, Peter Paul G.Koehler, Karl R.Locher, Heiko2024-03-222024-03-222023van der Valk WH, van Beelen ESA, Steinhart MR, et al. A single-cell level comparison of human inner ear organoids with the human cochlea and vestibular organs [published correction appears in Cell Rep. 2023 Dec 26;42(12):113527]. Cell Rep. 2023;42(6):112623. doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2023.112623https://hdl.handle.net/1805/39426Inner ear disorders are among the most common congenital abnormalities; however, current tissue culture models lack the cell type diversity to study these disorders and normal otic development. Here, we demonstrate the robustness of human pluripotent stem cell-derived inner ear organoids (IEOs) and evaluate cell type heterogeneity by single-cell transcriptomics. To validate our findings, we construct a single-cell atlas of human fetal and adult inner ear tissue. Our study identifies various cell types in the IEOs including periotic mesenchyme, type I and type II vestibular hair cells, and developing vestibular and cochlear epithelium. Many genes linked to congenital inner ear dysfunction are confirmed to be expressed in these cell types. Additional cell-cell communication analysis within IEOs and fetal tissue highlights the role of endothelial cells on the developing sensory epithelium. These findings provide insights into this organoid model and its potential applications in studying inner ear development and disorders.en-USPublisher PolicyCPStem cell researchAdultEndothelial cellsFetalGeneticsHumanInduced pluripotent stem cellsInner earOrganoidsSensorineural hearing lossSingle-cell gene expression analysisArticle