Figure 7.

Human Otic Progenitors Expressed Late Otic Sensory Markers 14 Days Post-implantation In Vivo

(A) Transplanted Dil-hOPCs in a transverse section of drug-treated cochlea. A projection of a confocal image stack showing MYO7A (shown in green) and SOX2 (shown in white) immunoreactivity, Vybrant-Dil (shown in red), and nuclear DAPI staining (shown in blue). We observed a complete loss of OHCs, but the IHC (arrow) remained in the ototoxin-damaged organ of Corti (OC, dotted line). (B–B″) Enlarged region of boxed area in (A) showing MYO7A/Dil-positive cells (arrows) at the basal part of the organ of Corti. (C) Area from whole-mount surface preparation of another ototoxin-damaged and grafted cochlea showing two Dil-labeled cells (red) immunopositive for MYO7A (green). (D–D″) Magnification of a dotted area in (C) with separated channel combinations: Dil-labeled cells (red), MYO7A-immunopositive cells (green), merge (yellow). (E) A confocal image of another ototoxin-damaged cochlea showing implanted Dil-labeled cells and nuclear SOX2 immunostaining (white). (F–F″) A magnification of boxed area in (E) revealed some SOX2/Dil cells at the basal area of the organ of Corti (arrows). Scale bars, 20 μm (A and E), 10 μm (C and F), and 5 μm (B′–B″, D′–D″, and F′–F″).