Fig. 1.

Effect of VEGF on gentamicin-induced hair cell damage. Representative photographs of organs of Corti labeled with Texas Red X-phalloidin are shown. Untreated organs of Corti demonstrate three orderly rows of outer hair cells and a single row of inner hair cells. To induce severe hair cell damage, organs of Corti were cultured in cell culture medium supplemented with gentamicin [19]. Organs of Corti were pre-treated for 2 h with increasing concentrations of VEGF (50, 100 and 300 ng/ml) [36] and exposed to VEGF and gentamicin for an additional 24 h. Culture with VEGF in addition to gentamicin did not decrease hair cell loss compared to gentamicin treatment only. In contrast to VEGF, Epo showed a dose-dependent protective effect on gentamicin-induced hair cell damage in vitro [19]