All Akt isoforms (Akt1, Akt2, Akt3) are involved in normal hearing, but only Akt2 and Akt3 are involved in auditory hair cell survival in the mammalian inner ear.

ABSTRACT: The kinase Akt is a key downstream mediator of the phosphoinositide-3-kinase signaling pathway and participates in a variety of cellular processes. Akt comprises three isoforms each encoded by a separate gene. There is evidence to indicate that Akt is involved in the survival and protection of auditory hair cells in vitro. However, little is known about the physiological role of Akt in the inner ear-especially in the intact animal. To elucidate this issue, we first analyzed the mRNA expression of the three Akt isoforms in the inner ear of C57/BL6 mice by real-time PCR. Next, we tested the susceptibility to gentamicin-induced auditory hair cell loss in isoform-specific Akt knockout mice compared to wild-types (C57/BL6) in vitro. To analyze the effect of gene deletion in vivo, hearing and co

SUBMITTER: Brand Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4374771 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature