Targeting the melanocytes of the inner ear: A comparison of different CreER lines.

ABSTRACT: The inner ear is responsible for hearing and balance. During development, the inner ear undergoes extensive morphogenesis to create a coil shaped cochlea and three semicircular canals from an original flat otic placode. During this morphogenesis, neural crest cells migrate into the inner ear in formation to become either glial cells or melanocytes. The glial cells are located in the cochleo-vestibular ganglion and the melanocytes reside in the stria vascularis in the cochlea and dark cells zone in the vestibule. The stria vascularis pumps potassium ions into the scala media, generating a positive endocochlear potential which is crucial to the mechanosensory cells for auditory signal transduction. Any defect in strial cells leads to the dysregulation of ionic composition of the endolymph, u

SUBMITTER: Nayak MK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12912628 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature