Vezatin, an integral membrane protein of adherens junctions, is required for the sound resilience of cochlear hair cells.

ABSTRACT: Loud sound exposure is a significant cause of hearing loss worldwide. We asked whether a lack of vezatin, an ubiquitous adherens junction protein, could result in noise-induced hearing loss. Conditional mutant mice bearing non-functional vezatin alleles only in the sensory cells of the inner ear (hair cells) indeed exhibited irreversible hearing loss after only one minute exposure to a 105 dB broadband sound. In addition, mutant mice spontaneously underwent late onset progressive hearing loss and vestibular dysfunction related to substantial hair cell death. We establish that vezatin is an integral membrane protein with two adjacent transmembrane domains, and cytoplasmic N- and C-terminal regions. Late recruitment of vezatin at junctions between MDCKII cells indicates that the protein does

SUBMITTER: Bahloul A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3378116 | biostudies-literature | 2009 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature