Spiral ganglion neurons (SGNs) are postsynaptic to hair cells and project to the brainstem. The inner hair cell (IHC) to SGN synapse is susceptible to glutamate excitotoxicity and to acoustic trauma, with potentially adverse consequences to long-term SGN survival. We used a cochlear explant culture from P6 rat pups consisting of a portion of organ of Corti maintained intact with the corresponding portion of spiral ganglion to investigate excitotoxic damage to IHC-SGN synapses in vitro. The normal innervation pattern is preserved in vitro. Brief treatment with NMDA and kainate results in loss of IHC-SGN synapses and degeneration of the distal type 1 SGN peripheral axons, mimicking damage to SGN peripheral axons caused by excitotoxicity or noise in vivo. The number of IHC presynaptic ribbons is not significantly altered. Reinnervation of IHCs occurs and regenerating axons remain restricted to the IHC row. However, the number of postsynaptic densities (PSDs) does not fully recover and not all axons regrow to the IHCs. Addition of either neurotrophin-3 (NT-3) or BDNF increases axon growth and synaptogenesis. Selective blockade of endogenous NT-3 signaling with TrkC-IgG reduced regeneration of axons and PSDs, but TrkB-IgG, which blocks BDNF, has no such effect, indicating that endogenous NT-3 is necessary for SGN axon growth and synaptogenesis. Remarkably, TrkC-IgG reduced axon growth and synaptogenesis even in the presence of BDNF, indicating that endogenous NT-3 has a distinctive role, not mimicked by BDNF, in promoting SGN axon growth in the organ of Corti and synaptogenesis on IHCs.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 5. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 23 December 2025.
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#10,327,706
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Outputs from Journal of Neuroscience
#11,155
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Outputs of similar age
#57,215
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Outputs of similar age from Journal of Neuroscience
#130
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Altmetric has tracked 34,400,738 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 69th percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 23,401 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 15.3. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 51% of its peers.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 294 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 55% of its contemporaries.
