Fig. 3.

Progressive loss of hair cells in Prestin-KO mice. A Reconstructed whole cochlear coil showing outer hair cell (OHC) survival from a 2-month-old (2M) Prestin-KO mouse. The cochlea is labeled with MYO7A antibody (white), phalloidin (red), and DAPI (blue). Left panels: scale bar, 300 μm. Right panels: enlarged images of apical, middle, and basal fragments in the dashed-line frames in (A). Scale bar, 100 μm. Note OHCs are only preserved in the apical coil. B, C Reconstructed whole cochlear coils showing OHC survival from a 1-month-old (1M) Prestin-KO mouse (B) and a 3-week-old (3W) Prestin-KO mouse (C). All the staining conditions are similar to (A). Note that most of the OHCs are present except in the basal part (B). D–G Loss of OHCs and IHCs in positions along the cochlear coil (as ratios) in 2M (D), 6W (E), 1M (F), and 3W (G) Prestin-KO mice. In (D–G), data are presented as the mean ± SD, and N numbers are shown in panels.