Objective To establish adult rat auditory epithelial cell culture and try to find precursor cells of auditory hair cells in vitro. Methods With refinement of culture media and techniques, cochlear sensory epithelial cells of adult rat were cultured. Immunocytochemistry and Bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU)labeling were used to detect properties and mitotic status of cultured cells. Results The cultured auditory epithelial cells showed a large, flat epithelial morphotype and expressed F-actin and cytokeratin, a subset of cells generated from auditory epithelium were labeled by calretinin, a specific marker of early hair cell. Conclusion Adult rat auditory epithelium can be induced to generate hair cell-like cells by nature culture, this phenomenon suggests that progenitor cells may exist in rat cochlea and they may give birth to new hair cells. Whether these progenitor cells are tissue specific stem cells is still need more study.