Transplantation of human adipose tissue-derived stem cells for repair of injured spiral ganglion neurons in deaf guinea pigs

Excessive noise, ototoxic drugs, infections, autoimmune diseases, and aging can cause loss of spiral ganglion neurons, leading to permanent sensorineural hearing loss in mammals. Stem cells have been confirmed to be able to differentiate into spiral ganglion neurons. Little has been reported on adipose tissue-derived stem cells (ADSCs) for repair of injured spiral ganglion neurons. In this study, we hypothesized that transplantation of neural induced-human ADSCs (NI-hADSCs) can repair the injured spiral ganglion neurons in guinea pigs with neomycin-induced sensorineural hearing loss. NI-hADSCs were induced with culture medium containing basic fibroblast growth factor and forskolin and then injected to the injured cochleae. Guinea pigs that received injection of Hanks’ balanced salt solution into the cochleae were used as controls. Hematoxylin-eosin staining showed that at 8 weeks after cell transplantation, the number of surviving spiral ganglion neurons in the cell transplantation group was significantly increased than that in the control group. Also at 8 weeks after cell transplantation, immunohistochemical staining showed that a greater number of NI-hADSCs in the spiral ganglions were detected in the cell transplantation group than in the control group, and these NI-hADSCs expressed neuronal markers neurofilament protein and microtubule-associated protein 2. Within 8 weeks after cell transplantation, the guinea pigs in the cell transplantation group had a gradually decreased auditory brainstem response threshold, while those in the control group had almost no response to 80 dB of clicks or pure tone burst. These findings suggest that a large amount of NI-hADSCs migrated to the spiral ganglions, survived for a period of time, repaired the injured spiral ganglion cells, and thereby contributed to the recovery of sensorineural hearing loss in guinea pigs.