E-Mail IMAGE: The top image is a cross-section of the organ of Corti from a 12-month-old mouse (homozygous Nox3-Cre+/+;tdTomato) and the bottom image is an illustration of this. Red fluorescent proteins (tdTomato),... view more Credit: Takehiko Ueyama Professor UEYAMA Takehiko (Biosignal Research Center, Kobe University) and the inner ear research group (Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine) have identified the cell types in the inner ear cochlea ( *1) responsible for the production of superoxide (Nox3 *2-expressing cells). They achieved this by using genetically modified mice that they developed. The researchers discovered that these superoxide-producing cells increase in number in response to aging, noise damage, and ototoxic drugs, thus causing age-related, noise-induced and drug-induced hearing loss. In addition, they were able to suppress the onset of these three types of acquired hearing loss in genetically modified mice with no Nox3 expression (Nox3 knockout).