Engineering of functional auditory neurons from human induced pluripotent stem cells

Military Medical Research
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Minjin Jeong, Lucas G Vattino, Maja Djurisic, Kevin P Rose, Hiroshi Hyakusoku, Svetolik Spasic, Xiao-Jie Ma, Hiroaki Mohri, Ronna Hertzano, Anne E Takesian, Konstantina M Stankovic
BACKGROUND: Spiral ganglion neurons (SGNs) relay auditory sensory information from the cochlea to the brain. Their loss results in permanent hearing impairment in humans due to their limited regenerative capacity. Progress in hearing restoration has been constrained by the inaccessibility of human inner ear tissue and challenges in generating functionally mature human SGN-like neurons from stem cells in vitro.