scholarly journals Chicken Auditory Supporting Cells Express Interferon Response Genes during Regeneration towards Nascent Sensory Hair Cells In Vivo

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda S Janesick ◽  
Mirko Scheibinger ◽  
Nesrine Benkafadar ◽  
Sakin Kirti ◽  
Stefan Heller

The avian hearing organ is the basilar papilla that, in sharp contrast to the mammalian cochlea, can regenerate sensory hair cells and thereby recover from complete deafness within weeks. The mechanisms that trigger, sustain, and terminate the regenerative response in vivo are largely unknown. Here, we profile the changes in gene expression in the chicken basilar papilla after aminoglycoside antibiotic-induced hair cell loss using RNA-sequencing. The most prominent changes in gene expression were linked to the upregulation of interferon response genes which occurred in supporting cells, confirmed by single-cell RNA-sequencing and in situ hybridization. We determined that the JAK/STAT signaling pathway is essential for the interferon gene response in supporting cells, set in motion by hair cell loss. Four days after ototoxic damage, we identified newly regenerated, nascent auditory hair cells that express genes linked to termination of the interferon response. These cells are incipient modified neurons that represent a population of hair cells en route towards obtaining their location-specific and fully functional cell identity. The robust, transient expression of immune-related genes in supporting cells suggests a potential functional involvement of JAK/STAT signaling and interferon in sensory hair cell regeneration.

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (546) ◽  
pp. eaay9101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei-Hsi Yeh ◽  
Olga Shubina-Oleinik ◽  
Jonathan M. Levy ◽  
Bifeng Pan ◽  
Gregory A. Newby ◽  
...  

Most genetic diseases arise from recessive point mutations that require correction, rather than disruption, of the pathogenic allele to benefit patients. Base editing has the potential to directly repair point mutations and provide therapeutic restoration of gene function. Mutations of transmembrane channel-like 1 gene (TMC1) can cause dominant or recessive deafness. We developed a base editing strategy to treat Baringo mice, which carry a recessive, loss-of-function point mutation (c.A545G; resulting in the substitution p.Y182C) in Tmc1 that causes deafness. Tmc1 encodes a protein that forms mechanosensitive ion channels in sensory hair cells of the inner ear and is required for normal auditory function. We found that sensory hair cells of Baringo mice have a complete loss of auditory sensory transduction. To repair the mutation, we tested several optimized cytosine base editors (CBEmax variants) and guide RNAs in Baringo mouse embryonic fibroblasts. We packaged the most promising CBE, derived from an activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID), into dual adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) using a split-intein delivery system. The dual AID-CBEmax AAVs were injected into the inner ears of Baringo mice at postnatal day 1. Injected mice showed up to 51% reversion of the Tmc1 c.A545G point mutation to wild-type sequence (c.A545A) in Tmc1 transcripts. Repair of Tmc1 in vivo restored inner hair cell sensory transduction and hair cell morphology and transiently rescued low-frequency hearing 4 weeks after injection. These findings provide a foundation for a potential one-time treatment for recessive hearing loss and support further development of base editing to correct pathogenic point mutations.


2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (21) ◽  
pp. E4853-E4860 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinkyung Kim ◽  
Anping Xia ◽  
Nicolas Grillet ◽  
Brian E. Applegate ◽  
John S. Oghalai

Traumatic noise causes hearing loss by damaging sensory hair cells and their auditory synapses. There are no treatments. Here, we investigated mice exposed to a blast wave approximating a roadside bomb. In vivo cochlear imaging revealed an increase in the volume of endolymph, the fluid within scala media, termed endolymphatic hydrops. Endolymphatic hydrops, hair cell loss, and cochlear synaptopathy were initiated by trauma to the mechanosensitive hair cell stereocilia and were K+-dependent. Increasing the osmolality of the adjacent perilymph treated endolymphatic hydrops and prevented synaptopathy, but did not prevent hair cell loss. Conversely, inducing endolymphatic hydrops in control mice by lowering perilymph osmolality caused cochlear synaptopathy that was glutamate-dependent, but did not cause hair cell loss. Thus, endolymphatic hydrops is a surrogate marker for synaptic bouton swelling after hair cells release excitotoxic levels of glutamate. Because osmotic stabilization prevents neural damage, it is a potential treatment to reduce hearing loss after noise exposure.


1988 ◽  
Vol 98 (6) ◽  
pp. 607-611 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J. Henry ◽  
Michael Makaretz ◽  
James C. Saunders ◽  
Mark E. Schneider ◽  
Panayotis Vrettakos

Neonatal chicks (between 1 and 3 days of age) were exposed to an intense pure tone for 48 hours, then killed immediately after removal from the sound, or 14 days later. Nonexposed age-matched animals served as controls. The inner ear was removed and the auditory receptor organ (the basilar papilla) was prepared for evaluation by scanning electron microscopy. The site of injury on the papilla was described in terms of hair-cell loss and location. The ears with no recovery showed a discrete lesion area, within which there was complete disruption of the hair-cell field and a 35% loss in hair cells. After 14 days' recovery, no hair cell loss could be detected, though the lesion could still be recognized by the disorganization of hair cells in the previously injured area. These data demonstrate hair-cell restoration after severe acoustic injury from intense sound exposure in the neonatal ear.


1990 ◽  
Vol 110 (4) ◽  
pp. 1055-1066 ◽  
Author(s):  
G P Richardson ◽  
S Bartolami ◽  
I J Russell

Immunological techniques have been used to generate both polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies specific for the apical ends of sensory hair cells in the avian inner ear. The hair cell antigen recognized by these antibodies is soluble in nonionic detergent, behaves on sucrose gradients primarily as a 16S particle, and, after immunoprecipitation, migrates as a polypeptide with a relative molecular mass of 275 kD on 5% SDS gels under reducing conditions. The antigen can be detected with scanning immunoelectron microscopy on the apical surface of the cell and on the stereocilia bundle but not on the kinocilium. Double label studies indicate that the entire stereocilia bundle is stained in the lagena macula (a vestibular organ), whereas in the basilar papilla (an auditory organ) only the proximal region of the stereocilia bundle nearest to the apical surface is stained. The monoclonal anti-hair cell antibodies do not stain brain, tongue, lung, liver, heart, crop, gizzard, small intestine, skeletal muscle, feather, skin, or eye tissues but do specifically stain renal corpuscles in the kidney. Experiments using organotypic cultures of the embryonic lagena macula indicate that the antibodies cause a significant increase in the steady-state stiffness of the stereocilia bundle but do not inhibit mechanotransduction. The antibodies should provide a suitable marker and/or tool for the purification of the apical sensory membrane of the hair cell.


Science ◽  
1988 ◽  
Vol 240 (4860) ◽  
pp. 1774-1776 ◽  
Author(s):  
BM Ryals ◽  
EW Rubel

Recovery of hair cells was studied at various times after acoustic trauma in adult quail. An initial loss of hair cells recovered to within 5 percent of the original number of cells. Tritium-labeled thymidine was injected after this acoustic trauma to determine if mitosis played a role in recovery of hair cells. Within 10 days of acoustic trauma, incorporation of [3H]thymidine was seen over the nuclei of hair cells and supporting cells in the region of initial hair cell loss. Thus, hair cell regeneration can occur after embryonic terminal mitosis.


F1000Research ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 927 ◽  
Author(s):  
M Charles Liberman

The classic view of sensorineural hearing loss has been that the primary damage targets are hair cells and that auditory nerve loss is typically secondary to hair cell degeneration. Recent work has challenged that view. In noise-induced hearing loss, exposures causing only reversible threshold shifts (and no hair cell loss) nevertheless cause permanent loss of >50% of the synaptic connections between hair cells and the auditory nerve. Similarly, in age-related hearing loss, degeneration of cochlear synapses precedes both hair cell loss and threshold elevation. This primary neural degeneration has remained a “hidden hearing loss” for two reasons: 1) the neuronal cell bodies survive for years despite loss of synaptic connection with hair cells, and 2) the degeneration is selective for auditory nerve fibers with high thresholds. Although not required for threshold detection when quiet, these high-threshold fibers are critical for hearing in noisy environments. Research suggests that primary neural degeneration is an important contributor to the perceptual handicap in sensorineural hearing loss, and it may be key to the generation of tinnitus and other associated perceptual anomalies. In cases where the hair cells survive, neurotrophin therapies can elicit neurite outgrowth from surviving auditory neurons and re-establishment of their peripheral synapses; thus, treatments may be on the horizon.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gyo Eun Gu ◽  
Chul Soon Park ◽  
Hyun-Ju Cho ◽  
Tai Hwan Ha ◽  
Joonwon Bae ◽  
...  

1993 ◽  
Vol 105 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-31
Author(s):  
E. Hashino ◽  
R.J. Salvi

The purpose of the present study was to examine the spatio-temporal pattern of cell proliferation in the chick cochlea in response to the sensory hair cell loss induced by a 1.5 kHz pure tone at 120 dB SPL (1 dB = 20 muPa) for 48 h. DNA replication was evaluated with the bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) pulse-fix technique. One group of birds was given multiple injections of BrdU (50 mg/kg) over a period of 8 h at various starting times during or after the exposure. Afterwards, their cochleas were removed and processed as whole mounts for BrdU immunohistochemistry. The cochleas of a second group of acoustically traumatized chicks were evaluated by scanning electron microscopy in order to determine the spatio-temporal pattern of hair cell loss. Hair cell loss was first observed 12 h after the start of the exposure and DNA replication started near the inferior edge of the hair cell lesion 24–32 h after the start of the exposure, i.e. 12–20 h after the first sign of hair cell loss. The site of hair cell loss and DNA replication shifted toward the superior edge of the basilar papilla as the exposure continued. The rate of DNA replication accelerated and reached its peak near the end of the 48 h exposure. The estimated latency of cell proliferation after hair cell loss was faster and the duration of DNA replication shorter than that observed in other sensory systems. The spatio-temporal pattern of DNA replication follows the spatio-temporal gradient of hair cell loss, suggesting that cell proliferation is triggered by hair cell loss itself rather than by intrinsic positional cues or gradients.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moataz Dowaidar

Neurotrophin (NT) cochlear gene therapy might perhaps give a single treatment that might greatly enhance neuronal survival, resulting in CI patients, provided the many challenges described above can be adequately addressed and safety concerns allayed by more animal model investigations. This is particularly crucial for juvenile CI patients, who have to rely on electrical hearing for the remainder of their lives, and whose outcomes are quite different. In addition, NT gene therapy may have the potential to treat patients with noise-induced hearing loss or neural presbyacusis (e.g., age-related cochlear synaptopathy), where primary neuronal loss is a key cause of hearing loss. Animal research into noise-induced hearing loss has shown that even exposures that generate only reversible threshold alterations and no hair cell loss can lead to permanent loss of SGN synapses on hair cells, resulting in functional impairments and ultimately SGN degeneration. Cochlear synapses frequently precede both hair cell loss and threshold increases in human ears, according to current studies. Cochlear synaptopathy is characterized by ears with intact hair cell populations and normal audiograms as "hidden" hearing loss. Many frequent perceptual abnormalities, including speech-in-noise difficulties, tinnitus, and hyperacusis, are likely produced by suppressing affected neurons, which radically alters information processing. Thus, in the future, NT gene therapy may be successful in inducing SGN peripheral axon resprouting and synaptic regeneration into residual (or even regenerated) hair cell populations. We have demonstrated compelling evidence that, in this investigation, BDNF gene therapy can boost SGN survival and enhance peripheral axon maintenance or rerouting. NT-3 has been found in adult animals exposed to acoustic damage to induce synaptic regeneration of these fibers, reconnecting them to hair cells and their ribbon synapses, and restoring hearing function. Combining BDNF and NT-3 gene therapy may be the most effective way to maintain/restore a more normal cochlear neuronal substrate.


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