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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 Jan 11.
Published in final edited form as: J Neurosci. 2012 Jul 11;32(28):9639–9648. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1064-12.2012

Figure 4. Lgr5-positive cells were progenitors for hair cells in vitro and in vivo.

Figure 4

(A) Neurospheres were obtained from Lgr5-CreER mice crossed to tdTomato reporter mice that had been treated with tamoxifen at P1 to label Lgr5-expressing cells. The label for tdTomato in hair cells that were positive for myosin VIIa indicated a derivation from Lgr5-expressing supporting cells. (B) When tamoxifen was added to third generation neurospheres from Lgr5-CreER reporter mice, labeling by tdTomato was observed in cells positive for hair cell markers, indicating derivation of hair cells from Lgr5-positive cells in the spheres. (C) At E12.5, Lgr5 (Lgr5-GFP, left panel) co-localized with Sox2-positive progenitor cells in the cochlear duct (middle panel). (D) Hair cell generation was traced back to Lgr5-positive progenitor cells using a tdTomato lineage tag (E12–E17). (E) Supporting cells beyond the restricted Lgr5-GFP-positive subset were tdTomato-positive.