Characterization of tympanic border cells as progenitors for mouse cochlea cells

• Project/Area Number: 26861372
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Otorhinolaryngology
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: Taniguchi Mirei 京都大学, 医学研究科, 客員研究員 (80706713)
• Research Collaborator: IKI Takehiro 京都大学, 医学研究科, 特定病院助教 (20755649)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Project Status: Completed (Fiscal Year 2017)
• Budget Amount: ¥3,770,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥870,000); Fiscal Year 2017: ¥780,000 (Direct Cost: ¥600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥180,000); Fiscal Year 2016: ¥780,000 (Direct Cost: ¥600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥180,000); Fiscal Year 2015: ¥780,000 (Direct Cost: ¥600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥180,000); Fiscal Year 2014: ¥1,430,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥330,000)
• Keywords: Tympanic border cell / 内耳蝸牛 / 幹細胞 / 内耳再生 / 内耳幹細胞 / 遺伝子解析

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The aim of this project is to characterize the tympanic border cells localized under the basal membrane of organ of Corti through the transcriptome analysis. We already found slow cycling cells, perhaps progenitor cells of the inner ear tissue, in this area. Making clear their maintenance and regulations will give us some hints for the regeneration of cochlear hair cells.
In this research, we performed 2 things; establish the laser microdissection method and otosphere analysis using neonatal mouse cochlea. The former is good to obtain only the target area of tympanic border cells. In the latter, we found one of the candidate genes as the stemness category was existed in the area of tympanic border cells.