Transcriptomic analysis of cochleae after hair cell damage

Although mammalian hair cells are essentially unable to regenerate after damage, nonmammalian hair cells have a robust capacity for hair cell regeneration. To obtain insights into the mechanism of this difference, we analyzed the transcriptomic changes in the mouse cochleae after gentamicin damage and compared them with those in the chick cochleae collected at the corresponding damage time. The results indicated that 2,243 genes had significantly differential expression between the gentamicin- and saline-treated cochleae. Cochlea mRNA profiles of mice and chicken (at 3 days post gentamicin damage) were generated by deep sequencing, using Illumina Hiseq2500.