Abstract
Melanocytes, pigmented cells of mammals originating from the neural crests are distributed throughout the body surface to determine the coat/skin color. Also, they migrate to the stria vascularis in the inner ear cochlea. Loss of them results in loss of auditory sense, that is, the melanocytes in this region are essential for the normal hearing acuity. In order to survey the novel functions of these cells in the cochlea necessary for hearing, we are comparing the gene expression profiles in the region of C3H/He-Mitfmi-bw/Mitfmi-bw mice having no melanocytes and are genetically deaf, with those of wild type C3H/He mice, which have the normal hearing sense. Here, we will report the genes which are specifically expressed in strial melanocytes, and of which expressions were lost in those of melanocyte-lacking mice.