{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,22]],"date-time":"2026-09-22T07:18:14Z","timestamp":1790061494226,"version":"4.0.1"},"reference-count":38,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,10,27]],"date-time":"2021-10-27T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1635292800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000738","name":"U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000738","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Cell Dev. Biol."],"abstract":"<jats:p>Spiral ganglion neurons (SGNs) can be injured by a wide variety of insults. However, there still is a lack of degeneration models to specifically damage the SGNs without disturbing other types of cells in the inner ear. This study aims to generate an SGN-specific damage model using the Cre-LoxP transgenic mouse strains. The Cre-inducible diphtheria toxin receptor (<jats:italic>iDTR<jats:sup>+\/+<\/jats:sup><\/jats:italic>) knock-in mouse strain was crossed with a mouse strain with Cre activity specific to neurons (<jats:italic>Nefl<\/jats:italic><jats:sup><jats:italic>CreER\/CreER<\/jats:italic><\/jats:sup>). Expression of the Cre-recombinase activity was evaluated using the reporter mouse strain Ai9 at pre-hearing, hearing onset, and post-hearing stages. Accordingly, heterozygous <jats:italic>Nefl<\/jats:italic><jats:sup><jats:italic>CreER\/<\/jats:italic>+<\/jats:sup>;iDTR<jats:sup>+\/\u2013<\/jats:sup> mice were treated with tamoxifen on postnatal days 1\u20135 (P1\u20135), followed by diphtheria toxin (DT) or vehicle injection on P7, P14, and P21 to evaluate the SGN loss. Robust tamoxifen-induced Cre-mediated Ai9 tdTomato fluorescence was observed in the SGN area of heterozygous <jats:italic>Nefl<\/jats:italic><jats:sup><jats:italic>CreER\/<\/jats:italic>+<\/jats:sup>;Ai9<jats:sup>+\/\u2013<\/jats:sup> mice treated with tamoxifen, whereas vehicle-treated heterozygote mice did not show tdTomato fluorescence. Compared to vehicle-treated <jats:italic>Nefl<\/jats:italic><jats:sup><jats:italic>CreER\/<\/jats:italic>+<\/jats:sup>;iDTR<jats:sup>+\/\u2013<\/jats:sup> mice, DT-treated <jats:italic>Nefl<\/jats:italic><jats:sup><jats:italic>CreER\/<\/jats:italic>+<\/jats:sup>;iDTR<jats:sup>+\/\u2013<\/jats:sup> mice showed significant auditory brainstem response (ABR) threshold shifts and SGN cell loss. Hair cell count and functional study did not show significant changes. These results demonstrate that the <jats:italic>Nefl<\/jats:italic><jats:sup><jats:italic>CreER\/CreER<\/jats:italic><\/jats:sup> mouse strain exhibits inducible SGN-specific Cre activity in the inner ear, which may serve as a valuable SGN damage model for regeneration research of the inner ear.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fcell.2021.761847","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,10,27]],"date-time":"2021-10-27T06:59:16Z","timestamp":1635317956000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":7,"title":["Generation of a Spiral Ganglion Neuron Degeneration Mouse Model"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"9","author":[{"given":"Zhengqing","family":"Hu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Fnu","family":"Komal","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Aditi","family":"Singh","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Meng","family":"Deng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,10,27]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/s41467-017-01837-1","article-title":"Cisplatin is retained in the cochlea indefinitely following chemotherapy.","volume":"8","author":"Breglio","year":"2017","journal-title":"Nat. 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