Characterization of the Transcriptome of Hair Cell Regeneration in the Neonatal Mouse Utricle

Hearing and balance deficits are mainly caused by loss of sensory inner ear hair cells. The key signals that control hair cell regeneration are of great interest. However, the molecular events by which the cellular signals mediate hair cell regeneration in the mouse utricle are largely unknown.

In the present study, we investigated gene expression changes and related molecular pathways using RNA-seq and qRT-PCR in the newborn mouse utricle in response to neomycin-induced damage.

There were 302 and 624 genes that were found to be up-regulated and down-regulated in neomycin-treated samples. GO and KEGG pathway analyses of these genes revealed many deregulated cellular components, molecular functions, biological processes and signaling pathways that may be related to hair cell development. More importantly, the differentially expressed genes included 9 transcription factors from the zf-C2H2 family, and eight of them were consistently down-regulated during hair cell damage and subsequent regeneration.

Our results provide a valuable source for future studies and highlighted some promising genes, pathways or processes that may be useful for therapeutic applications.