In our previous studies, we showed that homozygous offsprings with targeted deletion of Cx26 in the epithelial GJ network of the cochlea (Gjb2−/− mice) failed to acquire hearing (Crispino et al., 2011; Johnson et al., 2017) and their heterozygous (Gjb2+/−) siblings are affected by accelerated presbycusis, also known as age-related hearing loss (ARHL; Fetoni et al., 2018). This evidence concerns the gene GJB2 and presbycusis.