Figure 2
SCs and GERCs embedded and fixed in the cochlear sensory epithelium start to migrate to HCs upon virus infection. (a–c) Immunostaining (whole mounts and sections; a) and electron microscope (b,c) analysis of SCs/GERCs [white (a) and black (c) arrowheads] during TMEV infection. Red arrowheads in (b) indicate stereocilia survival in the HCs. Under steady-state conditions, all cells in the sensory epithelium were fixed and arranged as cobblestones. At 9–12 h after TMEV incubation, virus-infected SCs migrated to the epithelial surface and to HCs. At 16–21 h after TMEV infection, virus-infected GERCs also moved to the epithelium and migrated to the HC layer. At 24 h after TMEV infection, most of the HC layer was covered by TMEV-infected SCs/GERCs. (d,e) Immunostaining of SCs during GFP-HSV-1 infection. GFP-HSV-1-infected SCs moved to the epithelial surface (d) and expressed F4/80 (e), as observed during RNA virus infection. Immunostaining and TEM scale bars, 20 µm. SEM scale bars, 5 µm.
