Neural stem cells suppress the hearing threshold shift caused by cochlear ischemia.

Neural stem cells are multipotent progenitor cells that show self-renewal activity. In this study, we assessed the use of neural stem cells for ameliorating ischemia-reperfusion injury of the gerbil cochlea. Neural stem cells were injected into one inner ear through the round window 1 day after ischemic insult. Immunostaining for nestin showed that the distribution of neural stem cells was concentrated within the organ of Corti. Seven days after ischemia, the injury-induced auditory brainstem response threshold shift and progressive inner hair cell damage were markedly less on the neural stem cell-transplanted side. These results suggest that the transplantation of neural stem cells is therapeutically useful for preventing damage to hair cells that occurs after transient ischemia of the cochlea.