Sensory hair cells in the inner ear are responsible for sound recognition. Damage to hair cells in adult mammals causes permanent hearing impairment because these cells cannot regenerate. By contrast, newborn mammals ...Sensory hair cells in the inner ear are responsible for sound recognition. Damage to hair cells in adult mammals causes permanent hearing impairment because these cells cannot regenerate. By contrast, newborn mammals possess limited regenerative capacity because of the active participation of various signaling pathways, including Wnt and Notch signaling. The Wnt and Notch pathways are highly sophisticated and conserved signaling pathways that control multiple cellular events necessary for the formation of sensory hair cells. Both signaling pathways allow resident supporting cells to regenerate hair cells in the neonatal cochlea. In this regard, Wnt and Notch signaling has gained increased research attention in hair cell regeneration. This review presents the current understanding of the Wnt and Notch signaling pathways in the auditory portion of the inner ear and discusses the possibilities of controlling these pathways with the hair cell fate determiner Atohl to regulate hair cell regeneration in the mammalian cochlea.展开更多
基金This work was supported by grants from the National Basic Research Program of China （973 Program, No. 2015CB965000）, the National Natural Science Foundation of China （Nos. 81570911, 81470692, 81470687, 81371094, 81230019, 81500790, 81570921, 31500852, and 31501194）, the Jiangsu Province Natural Science Foundation （Nos. BIC20150022, BK20140620, and BK20150598）, and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities （Nos. 2242014R30022, and 021414380037）.
文摘Sensory hair cells in the inner ear are responsible for sound recognition. Damage to hair cells in adult mammals causes permanent hearing impairment because these cells cannot regenerate. By contrast, newborn mammals possess limited regenerative capacity because of the active participation of various signaling pathways, including Wnt and Notch signaling. The Wnt and Notch pathways are highly sophisticated and conserved signaling pathways that control multiple cellular events necessary for the formation of sensory hair cells. Both signaling pathways allow resident supporting cells to regenerate hair cells in the neonatal cochlea. In this regard, Wnt and Notch signaling has gained increased research attention in hair cell regeneration. This review presents the current understanding of the Wnt and Notch signaling pathways in the auditory portion of the inner ear and discusses the possibilities of controlling these pathways with the hair cell fate determiner Atohl to regulate hair cell regeneration in the mammalian cochlea.
