Fig. 3: Hair cell subtypes in vestibular schwannoma and organ donor utricles.

a Schematic showing amphora-shaped type I hair cells (purple) with apical neck and calyceal innervation. Type II hair cells (green) are goblet-shaped and display bouton-type innervation. b SWNE plot with distinct clusters of type I and II hair cells highlighted. c Volcano plots of enriched genes in type I and II hair cells. Top 5 differentially expressed genes are labeled with validated genes marked (red triangles). Also see the Source Data file. d, e Violin plots of enriched markers of type I and II hair cells. f–i Fluorescent in situ hybridization and immunostaining validating expression of ADAM11 (yellow) in type I hair cells (asterisks) and KCNH6 (yellow) in type II hair cells (arrowheads) in sections of organ donor and vestibular schwannoma utricles counterstained with MYO7A (blue), SOX2 (green), and TUJ1 (magenta). f’ High magnification image of a type I hair cell, which is SOX2⁻ (green), amphora-shaped, displaying TUJ1⁺ calyx (magenta), and expressing ADAM11 (yellow). f” High magnification image of a type II hair cell from F (yellow box). This SOX2⁺ (green) type II hair cell is goblet-shaped, displays basolateral process, and lacks ADAM11 expression. g’ Examples of SOX2⁻ (green), ADAM11⁺ (yellow) type I hair cells with TUJ1⁺ calyx (magenta), and SOX2⁺ (green) type II hair cells without ADAM11 (yellow) expression in vestibular schwannoma utricle, respectively, from g (red box). h’ High magnification image of SOX2⁺ (green) type II hair cells with KCNH6 (yellow) expression, and SOX2⁻ (green) type I hair cells without KCNH6 (yellow) expression and with TUJ1⁺ calyx (magenta) in organ donor utricle, respectively, from h (green box). i’ Additional examples of SOX2⁺ (green) type II hair cells with KCNH6 (yellow) expression, and SOX2-negative, TUJ1⁺ calyx (magenta) type I hair cells without KCNH6 (yellow) expression in organ donor utricle, respectively, from h (green box). j Violin and merged SWNE plots showing enrichment of ADAM11 and KCNH6 in type I and II hair cells, respectively. Scale bar = 25 µm in (f–i), 5 µm in (f’, f”, g’, h’, i’). Source data are provided as a Source Data file.