Browsing by Subject "Hair cells"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Defining developmental trajectories of prosensory cells in human inner ear organoids at single-cell resolution
    (The Company of Biologists, 2023) Ueda, Yoshitomo; Nakamura, Takashi; Nie, Jing; Solivais, Alexander J.; Hoffman, John R.; Daye, Becca J.; Hashino, Eri; Otolaryngology -- Head and Neck Surgery, School of Medicine
    The inner ear sensory epithelia contain mechanosensitive hair cells and supporting cells. Both cell types arise from SOX2-expressing prosensory cells, but the mechanisms underlying the diversification of these cell lineages remain unclear. To determine the transcriptional trajectory of prosensory cells, we established a SOX2-2A-ntdTomato human embryonic stem cell line using CRISPR/Cas9, and performed single-cell RNA-sequencing analyses with SOX2-positive cells isolated from inner ear organoids at various time points between differentiation days 20 and 60. Our pseudotime analysis suggests that vestibular type II hair cells arise primarily from supporting cells, rather than bi-fated prosensory cells in organoids. Moreover, ion channel- and ion-transporter-related gene sets were enriched in supporting cells versus prosensory cells, whereas Wnt signaling-related gene sets were enriched in hair cells versus supporting cells. These findings provide valuable insights into how prosensory cells give rise to hair cells and supporting cells during human inner ear development, and may provide a clue to promote hair cell regeneration from resident supporting cells in individuals with hearing loss or balance disorders.
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    Directed Differentiation of Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells Into Inner Ear Sensory Epithelia in 3D Culture
    (Springer Nature, 2017) Nie, Jing; Koehler, Karl R.; Hashino, Eri; Otolaryngology -- Head and Neck Surgery, School of Medicine
    The inner ear sensory epithelium harbors mechanosensory hair cells responsible for detecting sound and maintaining balance. This protocol describes a three-dimensional (3D) culture system that efficiently generates inner ear sensory epithelia from aggregates of mouse embryonic stem (mES) cells. By mimicking the activations and repressions of key signaling pathways during in vivo inner ear development, mES cell aggregates are sequentially treated with recombinant proteins and small molecule inhibitors for activating or inhibiting the Bmp, TGFβ, Fgf, and Wnt signaling pathways. These stepwise treatments promote mES cells to sequentially differentiate into epithelia representing the non-neural ectoderm, preplacodal ectoderm, otic placodal ectoderm, and ultimately, the hair cell-containing sensory epithelia. The derived hair cells are surrounded by a layer of supporting cells and are innervated by sensory neurons. This in vitro inner ear organoid culture system may serve as a valuable tool in developmental and physiological research, disease modeling, drug testing, and potential cell-based therapies.
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    Large-scale annotated dataset for cochlear hair cell detection and classification
    (bioRxiv, 2023-09-01) Buswinka, Christopher J.; Rosenberg, David B.; Simikyan, Rubina G.; Osgood, Richard T.; Fernandez, Katharine; Nitta, Hidetomi; Hayashi, Yushi; Liberman, Leslie W.; Nguyen, Emily; Yildiz, Erdem; Kim, Jinkyung; Jarysta, Amandine; Renauld, Justine; Wesson, Ella; Thapa, Punam; Bordiga, Pierrick; McMurtry, Noah; Llamas, Juan; Kitcher, Siân R.; López-Porras, Ana I.; Cui, Runjia; Behnammanesh, Ghazaleh; Bird, Jonathan E.; Ballesteros, Angela; Vélez-Ortega, A. Catalina; Edge, Albert S. B.; Deans, Michael R.; Gnedeva, Ksenia; Shrestha, Brikha R.; Manor, Uri; Zhao, Bo; Ricci, Anthony J.; Tarchini, Basile; Basch, Martin; Stepanyan, Ruben S.; Landegger, Lukas D.; Rutherford, Mark; Liberman, M. Charles; Walters, Bradley J.; Kros, Corné J.; Richardson, Guy P.; Cunningham, Lisa L.; Indzhykulian, Artur A.; Otolaryngology -- Head and Neck Surgery, School of Medicine
    Our sense of hearing is mediated by cochlear hair cells, localized within the sensory epithelium called the organ of Corti. There are two types of hair cells in the cochlea, which are organized in one row of inner hair cells and three rows of outer hair cells. Each cochlea contains a few thousands of hair cells, and their survival is essential for our perception of sound because they are terminally differentiated and do not regenerate after insult. It is often desirable in hearing research to quantify the number of hair cells within cochlear samples, in both pathological conditions, and in response to treatment. However, the sheer number of cells along the cochlea makes manual quantification impractical. Machine learning can be used to overcome this challenge by automating the quantification process but requires a vast and diverse dataset for effective training. In this study, we present a large collection of annotated cochlear hair-cell datasets, labeled with commonly used hair-cell markers and imaged using various fluorescence microscopy techniques. The collection includes samples from mouse, human, pig and guinea pig cochlear tissue, from normal conditions and following in-vivo and in-vitro ototoxic drug application. The dataset includes over 90'000 hair cells, all of which have been manually identified and annotated as one of two cell types: inner hair cells and outer hair cells. This dataset is the result of a collaborative effort from multiple laboratories and has been carefully curated to represent a variety of imaging techniques. With suggested usage parameters and a well-described annotation procedure, this collection can facilitate the development of generalizable cochlear hair cell detection models or serve as a starting point for fine-tuning models for other analysis tasks. By providing this dataset, we aim to supply other groups within the hearing research community with the opportunity to develop their own tools with which to analyze cochlear imaging data more fully, accurately, and with greater ease.
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    Reconstitution of mouse inner ear sensory development from pluripotent stem cells
    (2014-01) Koehler, Karl R.; Oxford, Gerry S.; Cummins, Theodore R.; Hashino, Eri; Meyer, Jason S.; Zhang, Xin
    The inner ear contains specialized sensory epithelia that detect head movements, gravity and sound. Hearing loss and imbalance are primarily caused by degeneration of the mechanosensitive hair cells in sensory epithelia or the sensory neurons that connect the inner ear to the brain. The controlled derivation of inner ear sensory epithelia and neurons from pluripotent stem cells will be essential for generating in vitro models of inner ear disorders or developing cell-based therapies. Despite some recent success in deriving hair cells from mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells, it is currently unclear how to derive inner ear sensory cells in a fully defined and reproducible manner. Progress has likely been hindered by what is known about induction of the nonneural and preplacodal ectoderm, two critical precursors during inner ear development. The studies presented here report the step-wise differentiation of inner ear sensory epithelia from mouse ES cells in three-dimensional culture. We show that nonneural, preplacodal and pre-otic epithelia can be generated from ES cell aggregates by precise temporal control of BMP, TGFβ and FGF signaling, mimicking in vivo development. Later, in a self-guided process, vesicles containing supporting cells emerge from the presumptive otic epithelium and give rise to hair cells with stereocilia bundles and kinocilium. Remarkably, the vesicles developed into large cysts with sensory epithelia reminiscent of vestibular sense organs (i.e. the utricle, saccule and crista), which sense head movements and gravity in the animal. We have designated these stem cell-derived structures inner ear organoids. In addition, we discovered that sensory-like neurons develop alongside the organoids and form putative synapses with hair cells in a similar fashion to the hair cell-to-neuron circuit that forms in the developing embryo. Our data thus establish a novel in vitro model of inner ear organogenesis that can be used to gain deeper insight into inner ear development and disorder.
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    Selection of viral capsids and promoters affects the efficacy of rescue of Tmprss3-deficient cochlea
    (Elsevier, 2023-08-11) Aaron, Ksenia A.; Pekrun, Katja; Atkinson, Patrick J.; Billings, Sara E.; Abitbol, Julia M.; Lee, Ina A.; Eltawil, Yasmin; Chen, Yuan-Siao; Dong, Wuxing; Nelson, Rick F.; Kay, Mark A.; Cheng, Alan G.; Otolaryngology -- Head and Neck Surgery, School of Medicine
    Adeno-associated virus (AAV)-mediated gene transfer has shown promise in rescuing mouse models of genetic hearing loss, but how viral capsid and promoter selection affects efficacy is poorly characterized. Here, we tested combinations of AAVs and promoters to deliver Tmprss3, mutations in which are associated with hearing loss in humans. Tmprss3tm1/tm1 mice display severe cochlear hair cell degeneration, loss of auditory brainstem responses, and delayed loss of spiral ganglion neurons. Under the ubiquitous CAG promoter and AAV-KP1 capsid, Tmprss3 overexpression caused striking cytotoxicity in vitro and in vivo and failed to rescue degeneration or dysfunction of the Tmprss3tm1/tm1 cochlea. Reducing the dosage or using AAV-DJ-CAG-Tmprss3 diminished cytotoxicity without rescue of the Tmprss3tm1/tm1 cochlea. Finally, the combination of AAV-KP1 capsid and the EF1α promoter prevented cytotoxicity and reduced hair cell degeneration, loss of spiral ganglion neurons, and improved hearing thresholds in Tmprss3tm1/tm1 mice. Together, our study illustrates toxicity of exogenous genes and factors governing rescue efficiency, and suggests that cochlear gene therapy likely requires precisely targeted transgene expression.
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    Semi-automated single-molecule microscopy screening of fast-dissociating specific antibodies directly from hybridoma cultures
    (Elsevier, 2021-02-02) Miyoshi, Takushi; Zhang, Qianli; Miyake, Takafumi; Watanabe, Shin; Ohnishi, Hiroe; Chen, Jiji; Vishwasrao, Harshad D.; Chakraborty, Oisorjo; Belyantseva, Inna A.; Perrin, Benjamin J.; Shroff, Hari; Friedman, Thomas B.; Omori, Koichi; Watanabe, Naoki; Biology, School of Science
    Fast-dissociating, specific antibodies are single-molecule imaging probes that transiently interact with their targets and are used in biological applications including image reconstruction by integrating exchangeable single-molecule localization (IRIS), a multiplexable super-resolution microscopy technique. Here, we introduce a semi-automated screen based on single-molecule total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy of antibody-antigen binding, which allows for identification of fast-dissociating monoclonal antibodies directly from thousands of hybridoma cultures. We develop monoclonal antibodies against three epitope tags (FLAG-tag, S-tag, and V5-tag) and two F-actin crosslinking proteins (plastin and espin). Specific antibodies show fast dissociation with half-lives ranging from 0.98 to 2.2 s. Unexpectedly, fast-dissociating yet specific antibodies are not so rare. A combination of fluorescently labeled Fab probes synthesized from these antibodies and light-sheet microscopy, such as dual-view inverted selective plane illumination microscopy (diSPIM), reveal rapid turnover of espin within long-lived F-actin cores of inner-ear sensory hair cell stereocilia, demonstrating that fast-dissociating specific antibodies can identify novel biological phenomena.