Fig. 1

Inner ear primary cell (IEP). The left side demonstrates the structure of the cochlea in the auditory system, which comprises an outer hair cell (OHC) region with a low sodium and high potassium environment that receives audio signals and the nerve fiber containing the neural-related cell region with a high sodium and low potassium environment that transfers these signals. The right side shows IEP cells that include fibrocytes and epithelial cells (F&E cells) labeled in purple, neural-related cells labeled in pink, attached progenitor cells labeled in orange, and suspended progenitor cells that remain unlabeled because they are not attached. (Created with BioRender.com).