The miRNA cargos and roles of small extracellular vesicles from cochlear explants in a model of cisplatin-induced ototoxicity

Small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) play an important role in intercellular communication as well as pathological development. To explore the roles of sEVs in the progression of cisplatin-induced ototoxicity, we isolated sEVs from the conditioned culture medium of cisplatin-induced cochlear explants (Cis-sEVs) and the control group (Ctrl-sEVs) and profiled their miRNA cargos using small RNA sequencing The cochlear explants treated with 50 μM cisplatin or an equal volume of PBS for 48 h were used to build an ex vivo cisplatin-induced ototoxicity model.The sEV-free FBS medium was used to culture the cochlear explants. The conditioned culture supernatant was collected and stored at 4℃, and sEVs were isolated from the supernatant within one week.To explore the differentiation of miRNA molecular profiles between the Cis-sEV and Ctrl-sEV groups, small RNA-seq analysis was performed with three biological replicates in each group. The sEVs isolated from around 80 cochlear explants from each sample were used for small RNA sequencing.