Abstract
Balance disequilibrium is a significant contributor to falls in the elderly. The most common cause of balance dysfunction is loss of sensory cells from the vestibular sensory epithelia of the inner ear. However, inaccessibility of inner ear tissue in humans severely restricts possibilities for experimental manipulation to develop therapies to ameliorate this loss. We provide a structural and functional analysis of human vestibular sensory epithelia harvested at trans-labyrinthine surgery. We demonstrate the viability of the tissue and labeling with specific markers of hair cell function and of ion homeostasis in the epithelium. Samples obtained from the oldest patients revealed a significant loss of hair cells across the tissue surface, but we found immature hair bundles present in epithelia harvested from patients >60 years of age. These results suggest that the environment of the human vestibular sensory epithelium could be responsive to stimulation of developmental pathways to enhance hair cell regeneration, as has been demonstrated successfully in the vestibular organs of adult mice.
Highlights
Inner ear disorders, deafness, and balance disequilibrium are among the most common disabling conditions; it could be argued that the inner ear is responsible for a greater incidence of disability than any other organ system in the body
In utricular maculae and cristae exposed briefly to FM1-43 (Fig. 1A, B), cells throughout the entire epithelium were fluorescently labeled, and higher power (Fig. 1C) revealed the labeling was confined to cells with a morphology consistent with that of hair cells
The present work demonstrates the feasibility of obtaining human vestibular sensory epithelia in sufficient numbers to allow for meaningful experimental studies that could provide a means for exploring therapies for intervention to ameliorate or reverse agerelated hair cell loss
Summary
Deafness, and balance disequilibrium are among the most common disabling conditions; it could be argued that the inner ear is responsible for a greater incidence of disability than any other organ system in the body. Such disorders become increasingly prevalent with age. Regeneration of hair cells in the vestibular system of mammals has been reported (Forge et al, 1993, 1998; Kawamoto et al, 2009; Warchol et al, 1993), but the capacity to do so spontaneously is limited severely, so that vestibular functional deficits resulting from hair cell loss are permanent
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