The Effect of Target Tissues on Survival and Differentiation of Mammalian Statoacoustic Ganglion Neurons in Organ Culture

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Abstract
This study explored the effect of peripheral and central target tissues on the survival and differentiation of murine statoacoustic ganglion neurons. Isolated ganglia, ganglia with otic sensory epithelia, ganglia with rhombencephalic tissue and ganglia with both otic sensory epithelia and rhombencephalic tissues were explanted from 12.5 gestation-day mouse embryos. All explants developed for 14 days in vitro on the surface of HEMA hydrogel substrata. There were significantly fewer differentiated statoacoustic ganglion neurons in isolated ganglion explants (18.5%) than in explants of ganglia with peripheral (97.2%) or central (87.5%) target tissues or in those explants that contained both targets (93.1%). Our results confirm in the developing mouse that both peripheral and central target tissues exert a trophic influence on the survival and cytodifferentiation of statoacoustic ganglion neurons.