Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 13, 2026

Initiating Differentiation in Immortalized Multipotent Otic Progenitor Cells
Published on: January 2, 2016
Cochlear supporting cell transdifferentiation and integration into hair cell layers by inhibition of ephrin-B2
Jean Defourny1, Susana Mateo Sánchez1, Lies Schoonaert2
1GIGA-Neurosciences, Developmental Neurobiology Unit, University of Liège, C.H.U. B36, B-4000 Liège, Belgium.
Abstract:
In mammals, cochlear sensory hair cells that are responsible for hearing are postmitotic and are not replaced after loss. One of the most promising strategies to regenerate hair cells is to identify and inhibit the factors preventing the conversion of adjacent non-sensory supporting cells into hair cells. Here we demonstrate that mammalian hair cells can be directly generated from supporting cells by inhibition of ephrin-B2 signalling. Using either ephrin-B2 conditional knockout mice, shRNA-mediated gene silencing or soluble inhibitors, we found that downregulation of ephrin-B2 signalling at embryonic stages results in supporting cell translocation into hair cell layers and subsequent switch in cell identity from supporting cell to hair cell fate. As transdifferentiation is here a result of displacement across boundary, this original finding presents the interest that newly generated hair cells directly integrate either hair cell layer, then would be likely more rapidly able to fit into functional circuitry.
Related Concept Videos
Hair Cells
Role of Ephrin-Eph Signalling in Intestinal Stem Cell Renewal
The Cochlea
Forced Transdifferentiation
Artificial...
Unrenewable Cells
Photoreceptors
The retina is composed of several layers and contains specialized cells called photoreceptors. The photoreceptors (rods and cones) change their membrane potential when stimulated by light energy. There are two types of photoreceptors—rods and cones—which differ in the shape of...
Auditory Pathway
When viewed cross-sectionally, the cochlea reveals the scala vestibuli and scala tympani flanking...

