The auditory and vestibular organs form the inner ear and have a common developmental origin although different functions. The vestibular system is responsible of balance. Insulin like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) has a key role in the development of the cochlea and its deficiency causes sensorineural hearing loss in man and mice. During chicken early development, IGF-1 modulates neurogenesis and survival in the cochleovestibular ganglion but no further studies have been conducted to explore the role of IGF-1 in the vestibular system. In this study we have compared the whole transcriptome of the vestibular organ from Igf1-/- and Igf1+/+ mice at different developmental and postnatal times. RNA was prepared from E18.5, P15 and P90 vestibular organs of both genotypes and the transcriptome analyzed in triplicates using Affymetrix® Mouse Gene 1.1 ST Array Plates. An initial analysis of data was performed with packages available as part of Bioconductor and subsequently the data was analysed and then compared using VSN-RMA and mmBGX for detection of false positives and quantify uncertainty. The differential expression of genes and miRs selected from the study of these arrays were validated by RT-qPCR. The morphology of the vestibular organ did not show differences between genotypes and no obvious alterations of vestibular function were observed in the Igf1 deficient mouse. Functional analysis in silico was carried out on genes that were differentially expressed between genotypes and across time to define possible pathways that are involved in the development of the vestibular organ or affected by the lack of IGF-1.

Resumen del póster presentado al 52th Inner Ear Biology Symposium and Workshop, celebrado en Roma (Italia) del 12 al 15 de septiembre de 2015.

This work has received the support of the SAF2011-24391, AFHELO and TARGEAR (European Union FP7) projects.

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