Establishment of dissociated cell culture system of inner ear sensory epithelial cells

Selective primary culture of fetal rat otocyst cells

Abstract

Cell cultures of fetal inner ear sensory epithelial cells have not been established because of difficulties inisolating a sufficient number of cells required. We succeeded in establishing a culture system.
Embryonic day 12 rat otocysts were dissociated mechanically, and plated in serum-free media with epidermalgrowth factor (EGF). Seven days in vitro, epithelial-like cells survived and formed colonies, whilemesenchymal cells and Schwann cells mostly died. These colonies expressed cytokeratin that is an epithelialcell marker and nestin that is a neural stem cell marker. These results suggest that EGF-responsive fetalotocyst cells are undifferentiated sensory epithelial cells.