WNT activation and TGFß-smad inhibition potentiate stemness of mammalian auditory neuroprogenitors for high throughput generation of functional auditory neurons in vitro

We have previously identified and characterized the phoenix auditory neuroprogenitors (ANPGs) as highly proliferative progenitor cells isolated from the A/J mouse cochlea. In the present study, we aimed at identifying signaling pathways responsible for the intrinsic high stemness of phoenix ANPGs. A transcriptomic comparison of traditionally low stemness ANPGs, isolated from C57Bl/6 and A/J mice at early passages, and high stemness phoenix ANPGs was performed.