Gene expression assay using Microarray technique between embryonic stem cell and inner ear sphere formation cells.

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In the human inner ear, after loss of hair cell in the organ of Corti and spiral ganglion cells, the hair cells and ganglion cells do not regenerate spontaneously. Previously, it has been shown that cell transplantion to the damaged inner ear is a candidate therapy for permanent hearing loss. But, we have severe problems on securing of cell source for the cell transplantation. It was reported that embryonic stem cells possess potential to differentiate into hair cell phenotypes. The embryonic stem cells are possible candidate to overcome the problems. To develop methods of induction of differentiation of embryonic stem cell into the inner ear hair cells and spiral ganglion neurons, we need to know differences between the embryonic stem cells and the hair cells and ganglion neurons. In this study, we compared genes expressed in embryonic stem cells and cell cultures obtained from mouse developing inner ear. First, we established sphere formation cell cultures from embryonic day 10 mouse inner ears which containing immature inner ear cells. Second, expression genes of the embryonic stem cells and the otic sphere forming cell cultures were profiled using Agilent array, and then analyzed cyclopedically. The results of this assay showed that genes related in neural lineages, e. g. Olig1 and 01ig2, were expressed in otic shere forming cell cultures more predominantly than embryonic stem cell cultures. The profiles made in this study may lead us to develop new procedures to generate hair cells and ganglion neurons from embryonic stem cells. In this period, we contribute to researches of animal models of hearing loss and cell trasnplantation (Imura et al. Scinece 2007 in printing, Sekiya et al. Experimental Neurology 198: 12-24, 2005, Sekiya et. al. Eur J Neurol 25 : 2307-18, 2007).