ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Systems Immunology
Trophic and temporal dynamics of macrophage biology in human inner ear organogenesis
Provisionally accepted
- 1Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
- 2Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, Canada
- 3The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
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Recent single-cell transcriptomic approaches are uncovering the breadth and depth of cell diversity within the mammalian inner ear. Macrophages, detected from fetal week 5 in the human inner ear, persist into adulthood, and yet remain poorly understood in terms of their origin and function. Using self-generated and public scRNA-seq data, we identify seven distinct macrophage subtypes spanning fetal weeks 7.5 to 16.4 and adulthood. Each macrophage subtype is linked to specific developmental stages and displays a unique gene expression profile. These findings corroborate earlier histological evidence of resident and non-resident macrophages in both the developing and adult human cochlea. We also show that the human inner ear is seeded by macrophages from both embryonic and more definitive sources, corroborating studies in mouse. By analyzing ligand-receptor interactions, we highlight potential macrophage contributions to inner ear organogenesis. This research provides new insights into the diverse roles of human inner ear macrophages.
Keywords: Inner ear, Macrophages, Organogenesis, Hearing, balance
Received: 22 Aug 2025; Accepted: 28 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Deng, Ehiogu, Luca, Dabdoub, Le Cao, Wells and Nayagam. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Bryony Nayagam, b.nayagam@unimelb.edu.au
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