Skip to main content
. 2017 Feb 17;8:14487. doi: 10.1038/ncomms14487

Figure 2. Schwann cells in the auditory nerve regenerate within weeks after DTA induction in Plp1-expressing cells.

Figure 2

(a–d) Tamoxifen induction of DTA expression at P21 promotes EdU incorporation in DTA(+/−):Plp1/Cre(+/−) cochlea (c,d), but not the control cochlea (a,b). Mice were injected with tamoxifen at P21–23, with EdU at P29 and tissues harvested at P30. (b,d) High-magnification views of the dashed boxes in a and c, respectively. HP, habenula perforata; oC, organ of Corti; OSL, osseous spiral lamina. (e–h) Lineage tracing of EdU+ cells shows that they are Schwann cells that escaped DTA-mediated death. (h) Merged image of EdU labelling (e, green), Plp1-driven tdTomato (f, red) and nuclei (g, blue). Arrow heads in h indicate surviving Plp1-expressing cells incorporated EdU. (i–l) tdTomato-positive cells repopulate in 4 weeks after tamoxifen induction. Control (i,k) and DTA(+/−):tdTomato(+/−):Plp1/Cre(+/−) mice (j,l) were injected with tamoxifen from P21 to 23 and cochlear tissues analysed either 1 week (i,j, Tmx+1 week) or 4 weeks (k,l, Tmx+4 weeks) later.