Abstract
Melanocytes, pigmented cells of mammals originating from the neural crests are distributed throughout the body surface resulting in the determination of the coat/skin color. They also migrate to the stria vascularis in the inner ear cochlea. The melanocytes in this region are essential for the maintenance of hearing acuity. We demonstrated that an anti-oxidant enzyme encoding gene was specifically and highly expressed in the strial melanocytes of wild-type and albino mice, and that this expression was lost in those of Mitf ani-bw/Mitf ani-bw and Kit w-v/Kit W mice, showing a complete white coat with black eyes and deafness, due to the lack of melanocytes. Here, we report on the analyses of oxidative stress level and expressions of genes encoding anti-oxidant enzymes in the inner ear, which might be dependent on the condition of strial melanocytes.