Tucker et al. (2018) found very few K5-positive cells in healthy neural-crest-derived epithelium but larger numbers in inflamed promontory epithelium of Tbx1+/− mice with otitis media. In keeping with this study, we found a large population of K5-positive cells in the hyperplastic promontory epithelium of P22 MecomJbo/+ mice with otitis media. We observed similar patterns of K5, K7/K19 and K8 expression in ciliated epithelium in MecomJbo/+ and Fbxo11 bullae. Here, KRT7 is linked to otitis media.