Inner ear stem cells derived feeder layer promote directional differentiation of amniotic fluid stem cells into functional neurons.

Inner ear stem cells derived feeder layer promote directional differentiation of amniotic fluid stem cells into functional neurons. Hear Res. 2014 Aug 11; Authors: Zong L, Chen K, Zhou W, Jiang D, Sun L, Zhang X, Jiang H Abstract Intact spiral ganglion neurons are required for cochlear implantation or conventional hearing amplification as an intervention for sensorineural hearing loss. Treatment strategies to replace the loss of spiral ganglion neurons are needed. Recent reports have suggested that amniotic fluid-derived stem cells are capable of differentiating into neuron-like cells in response to cytokines and are not tumorigenic. Amniotic fluid stem cells represent a potential resource for cellular therapy of neural deafness due to spiral ganglion pathology. However, the directional differentiation of amniotic fluid stem cells is undetermined in the absence of cytokines and the consequence of inner ear supporting cells from the mouse cochlea organ of Corti on the differentiation of amniotic fluid stem cells remains to be defined. In an effort to circumvent these limitations, we investigated the effect of inner ear stem cells derived feeder layer on amniotic fluid stem cells differentiation in vitro. An inner ear stem cells derived feeder layer direct contact system was established to induce differentiation of amniotic fluid stem cells. Our results showed that inner ear stem cells derived feeder layer successfully promoted direct...
Source: Hearing Research - Category: Audiology Authors: Tags: Hear Res Source Type: research