Publication Date:
1999-08-28
Description:
DFN3, an X chromosome-linked nonsyndromic mixed deafness, is caused by mutations in the BRN-4 gene, which encodes a POU transcription factor. Brn-4-deficient mice were created and found to exhibit profound deafness. No gross morphological changes were observed in the conductive ossicles or cochlea, although there was a dramatic reduction in endocochlear potential. Electron microscopy revealed severe ultrastructural alterations in cochlear spiral ligament fibrocytes. The findings suggest that these fibrocytes, which are mesenchymal in origin and for which a role in potassium ion homeostasis has been postulated, may play a critical role in auditory function.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Minowa, O -- Ikeda, K -- Sugitani, Y -- Oshima, T -- Nakai, S -- Katori, Y -- Suzuki, M -- Furukawa, M -- Kawase, T -- Zheng, Y -- Ogura, M -- Asada, Y -- Watanabe, K -- Yamanaka, H -- Gotoh, S -- Nishi-Takeshima, M -- Sugimoto, T -- Kikuchi, T -- Takasaka, T -- Noda, T -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1999 Aug 27;285(5432):1408-11.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Cell Biology, The Cancer Institute, Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research, 1-37-1 Kami-ikebukuro, Toshima-ku, Tokyo 170-8455, Japan.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10464101" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animals
;
Cochlear Duct/*metabolism/pathology
;
*DNA-Binding Proteins
;
Deafness/genetics/*metabolism/pathology
;
Ear, Inner/metabolism/pathology
;
Ear, Middle/pathology
;
Endolymph/metabolism
;
Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem
;
Female
;
Gene Expression
;
Gene Targeting
;
Genetic Linkage
;
In Situ Hybridization
;
Ion Transport
;
Male
;
Membrane Potentials
;
Mice
;
Mice, Inbred C57BL
;
Mutagenesis
;
*Nerve Tissue Proteins
;
POU Domain Factors
;
Potassium/*metabolism
;
Transcription Factors/genetics/*metabolism
;
X Chromosome
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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