The role of β-catenin deletion in Sox2-positive cells in inner-ear development and polarity regulation in mice / 复旦学报（医学版）

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the role of β-catenin,the core protein of canonical Wnt/β-catenin signaling,in the inner-ear development and polarity regulation.Methods β-catenin was conditionally deleted from precursor cells of inner-ear sensory epithelium (Sox2-positive cells) in embryonic mice.Morphological changes of the inner ear were observed.Immunofluorescence staining was performed to basilar membranes,utricles and saccules to observe the hair-cell changes in arrangement and polarity.Results Compared with the control group,knock-out of β-catenin in Sox2-positive cells resulted in smaller otic vesicles,cochleas and vestibules,and fewer hair cells (HCs) in vestibular sensory epithelium (P＜0.01).Stereocilium showed misorientation and kinocillia had a change in location and quantity in the cochlea.Scattered misorented HCs were also observed in the vestibule.Conclusions β-catenin is crucial for the development of inner ear and polarity manipulation of HCs in mice.The canonical Wnt/β-catenin signaling may be involved in the regulation of cochlea extension and planar cell polarity (PCP) of inner ear,which is known to be controlled by non-canonical Wnt/PCP signaling.