Expression of candidate markers for stem/progenitor cells in the inner ears of developing and adult GFAP and nestin promoter-GFP transgenic mice

In the adult, GFAP expression is down-regulated from the supporting cells in the outer hair cell area and nestin expression is down-regulated in the supporting cells of the inner hair cell area. Sox2 and Jagged1 expression is maintained in the mature supporting cells, while Abcg2 was down-regulated in these cells. In contrast, GFAP and Abcg2 expression was up-regulated in the inner sulcus limbal cells outside the mature organ of Corti's area. Using quantitative reverse transcription-PCR, we found a decrease in transcripts for Jagged1 and Sox2 in adult cochleae. Our findings suggest that the loss of regenerative capacity of the adult organ of Corti is related to down-regulation of stem/progenitor key-markers from the mature supporting cells.