RNA-seq expression profiling of murine inner-ear hair cells

Sensorineural hearing loss affects the majority of the elderly population. Mammalian hair cells (HC) do not regenerate and current stem cell and gene delivery protocols result only in immature hair cells like-cells. For this reason, characterization of the transcriptional cascades that lead to development and survival of inner ear HC is essential for designing molecular-based treatments for deafness. We employed a cell type-specific approach to analyze the transcriptomes of the mouse early postnatal auditory and vestibular sensory epithelia and of hair cells derived from zebrafish model. Murine auditory and vestibular epithelia were separated into hair-cells (HCs) and epithelial non-sensory cells (ENSCs) by flow cytometry. Gene expression levels were recorded in independent triplicates from the sorted cells using RNA-seq