Kojima Ken, Takebayashi Shinji, Nakagawa Takayuki, Iwai Koji, Ito Juichi
Department of Otolaryngology--Head and Neck Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.
Acta Otolaryngol Suppl. 2004 Mar(551):14-7. doi: 10.1080/03655230310016744.
An intermediate filament (IF), nestin, is used as an immature cell marker because nestin occurs in neural progenitors during early development. Recent cell culture studies have indicated that proliferating otic progenitor cells express nestin in vitro. However, localization of nestin in the developing inner ear has not yet been clarified. In this study, the ontogenetical expression of nestin epitopes in the rat cochlea was examined immunohistochemically. Sensory epithelial cells in the rat Corti organ (e.g. hair cells and support cells) transiently demonstrated immunoreactivity for nestin during the late embryonic period. After birth, nestin expression in the sensory epithelia disappeared gradually. The findings of this study indicate that the expression of nestin epitopes in the developing cochlea is linked with the plasticities of sensory epithelial cells, such as proliferation or differentiation.
中间丝（IF）巢蛋白被用作未成熟细胞标志物，因为巢蛋白在早期发育过程中出现在神经祖细胞中。最近的细胞培养研究表明，增殖的耳祖细胞在体外表达巢蛋白。然而，巢蛋白在发育中的内耳中的定位尚未明确。在本研究中，采用免疫组织化学方法检测了大鼠耳蜗中巢蛋白表位的个体发生表达。大鼠柯蒂氏器中的感觉上皮细胞（如毛细胞和支持细胞）在胚胎后期短暂显示出对巢蛋白的免疫反应性。出生后，感觉上皮中的巢蛋白表达逐渐消失。本研究结果表明，发育中的耳蜗中巢蛋白表位的表达与感觉上皮细胞的可塑性有关，如增殖或分化。
