Figure 11

Acute injury (ouabain) and hypoxia enhance the formation of neurospheres from adult auditory nerves.

(a) Ouabain exposure significantly increased the numbers of primary cochlear neurospheres generated from adult auditory nerves (n = 33 individual preparations for both ouabain-treated auditory nerves and the controls; *p < 0.05, Student’s unpaired t-test). (b) Ouabain exposure significantly increased the number of BrdU⁺ cells in neurospheres generated from adult auditory nerves (n = 25 for ouabain-treated nerves and n = 10 for the controls; *p < 0.05, Student’s unpaired t-test). (c) Hypoxia significantly enhanced neurosphere formation from adult auditory nerves (n = 3 per group; *p < 0.05, Student’s unpaired t-test).