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Updated: Aug 21, 2026
An Isolated Semi-intact Preparation of the Mouse Vestibular Sensory Epithelium for Electrophysiology and High-resolution Two-photon Microscopy
Published on: June 13, 2013
Selective acquisition of individual cell types in the vestibular periphery for molecular biology studies
Ricardo Cristobal1, P Ashley Wackym, Joseph A Cioffi
1Department of Otolaryngology and Communication Sciences, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI 53226-3596, USA.
Objectives:
To develop a method for characterizing the transcriptome of individual cell types in the inner ear sensory epithelia.
Study Design:
We employed the technique of laser capture microdissection to obtain enriched populations of hair cells and supporting cells. The respective mRNAs were extracted, reverse transcribed, and amplified using PCR.
Results:
We were able to isolate RNAs with good integrity from enriched cell populations obtained with laser capture microscopy and amplify specific mRNA targets.
Conclusions:
We can now investigate the molecular differences between the different cell types in the inner ear sensory epithelia as identified by morphological criteria.
Significance:
Analysis of gene expression profiles in the inner ear cell types has been hampered by the small size of this tissue and by the compact histoarchitecture of the sensory epithelia; however, the present technique offers new possibilities for the analysis of transcriptomes in the vestibular periphery using available high-throughput gene expression analysis methods.
