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Cochlear Implant Surgery and Electrically-evoked Auditory Brainstem Response Recordings in C57BL/6 Mice
Published on: January 9, 2019
Neurons Differentiated from Transplanted Stem Cells Respond Functionally to Acoustic Stimuli in the Awake Monkey
Jing-Kuan Wei1, Wen-Chao Wang1, Rong-Wei Zhai1
1Key Laboratory of Animal Models and Human Disease Mechanisms of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Yunnan Province, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Kunming, Yunnan 650223, China; Kunming College of Life Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, Yunnan, 650204, China.
Abstract:
Here, we examine whether neurons differentiated from transplanted stem cells can integrate into the host neural network and function in awake animals, a goal of transplanted stem cell therapy in the brain. We have developed a technique in which a small "hole" is created in the inferior colliculus (IC) of rhesus monkeys, then stem cells are transplanted in situ to allow for investigation of their integration into the auditory neural network. We found that some transplanted cells differentiated into mature neurons and formed synaptic input/output connections with the host neurons. In addition, c-Fos expression increased significantly in the cells after acoustic stimulation, and multichannel recordings indicated IC specific tuning activities in response to auditory stimulation. These results suggest that the transplanted cells have the potential to functionally integrate into the host neural network.
