Changes of Hair Cell Stereocilia and Threshold Shift after Acoustic Trauma in Guinea Pigs: Comparison between Inner and Outer Hair Cells

ORL ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 65 (5) ◽  
pp. 266-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuh-Shyang Chen ◽  
Tien-Chen Liu ◽  
Chiung-Hsiang Cheng ◽  
Te-Huei Yeh ◽  
Shiann-Yann Lee ◽  
...  
1978 ◽  
Vol 86 (6) ◽  
pp. ORL-886-ORL-887 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia A. Prosen ◽  
Michael R. Petersen ◽  
David. B. Moody ◽  
William C. Stebbins ◽  
Joseph E. Hawkins

The differential contribution of the inner hair cells (IHC) and the outer hair cells (OHC) in the mammalian cochlea to hearing sensitivity was assessed in six behaviorally-trained guinea pigs by comparing audiograms preadministration and postadministration of kanamycin, an antibiotic that predominantly destroys guinea pig OHC while leaving the IHC structurally unchanged. The results support the hypothesis that only the IHC of the cochlea responds to tones approximately 50 to 60 dB above the threshold of the intact cochlea.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Waqas ◽  
Song Gao ◽  
Iram-us-Salam ◽  
Muhammad Kazim Ali ◽  
Yongming Ma ◽  
...  

Inner ear hair cells are mechanosensory receptors that perceive mechanical sound and help to decode the sound in order to understand spoken language. Exposure to intense noise may result in the damage to the inner ear hair cells, causing noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). Particularly, the outer hair cells are the first and the most affected cells in NIHL. After acoustic trauma, hair cells lose their structural integrity and initiate a self-deterioration process due to the oxidative stress. The activation of different cellular death pathways leads to complete hair cell death. This review specifically presents the current understanding of the mechanism exists behind the loss of inner ear hair cell in the auditory portion after noise-induced trauma. The article also explains the recent hair cell protection strategies to prevent the damage and restore hearing function in mammals.


1976 ◽  
Vol 85 (2) ◽  
pp. 276-280 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moshe Rubinstein ◽  
Nechama Pluznik

In an effort to ascertain whether differences in susceptibility to noise depend on general condition, awake and anesthetized guinea pigs were given a 4 kHz pure tone overstimulation under identical conditions. Cochlear hair cells were histologically examined four weeks after the noise exposure. The damage was localized in the upper part of the first turn and the lower part of the second turn. One fourth as much damage occurred in the anesthetized group. The distribution of damage in the four rows of sensory cells was different in the two experimental groups. In both groups of animals the damage was localized mainly to the outer hair cells, the first row sustaining the major damage.


Author(s):  
Xiao Lin ◽  
Michael G. K. Brunk ◽  
Pingan Yuanxiang ◽  
Andrew W. Curran ◽  
Enqi Zhang ◽  
...  

AbstractHearing deficits impact on the communication with the external world and severely compromise perception of the surrounding. Deafness can be caused by particular mutations in the neuroplastin (Nptn) gene, which encodes a transmembrane recognition molecule of the immunoglobulin (Ig) superfamily and plasma membrane Calcium ATPase (PMCA) accessory subunit. This study investigates whether the complete absence of neuroplastin or the loss of neuroplastin in the adult after normal development lead to hearing impairment in mice analyzed by behavioral, electrophysiological, and in vivo imaging measurements. Auditory brainstem recordings from adult neuroplastin-deficient mice (Nptn−/−) show that these mice are deaf. With age, hair cells and spiral ganglion cells degenerate in Nptn−/− mice. Adult Nptn−/− mice fail to behaviorally respond to white noise and show reduced baseline blood flow in the auditory cortex (AC) as revealed by single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). In adult Nptn−/− mice, tone-evoked cortical activity was not detectable within the primary auditory field (A1) of the AC, although we observed non-persistent tone-like evoked activities in electrophysiological recordings of some young Nptn−/− mice. Conditional ablation of neuroplastin in Nptnlox/loxEmx1Cre mice reveals that behavioral responses to simple tones or white noise do not require neuroplastin expression by central glutamatergic neurons. Loss of neuroplastin from hair cells in adult NptnΔlox/loxPrCreERT mice after normal development is correlated with increased hearing thresholds and only high prepulse intensities result in effective prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the startle response. Furthermore, we show that neuroplastin is required for the expression of PMCA 2 in outer hair cells. This suggests that altered Ca2+ homeostasis underlies the observed hearing impairments and leads to hair cell degeneration. Our results underline the importance of neuroplastin for the development and the maintenance of the auditory system.


Development ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 127 (21) ◽  
pp. 4551-4560 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.L. Zheng ◽  
J. Shou ◽  
F. Guillemot ◽  
R. Kageyama ◽  
W.Q. Gao

Hair cell fate determination in the inner ear has been shown to be controlled by specific genes. Recent loss-of-function and gain-of-function experiments have demonstrated that Math1, a mouse homolog of the Drosophila gene atonal, is essential for the production of hair cells. To identify genes that may interact with Math1 and inhibit hair cell differentiation, we have focused on Hes1, a mammalian hairy and enhancer of split homolog, which is a negative regulator of neurogenesis. We report here that targeted deletion of Hes1 leads to formation of supernumerary hair cells in the cochlea and utricle of the inner ear. RT-PCR analysis shows that Hes1 is expressed in inner ear during hair cell differentiation and its expression is maintained in adulthood. In situ hybridization with late embryonic inner ear tissue reveals that Hes1 is expressed in supporting cells, but not hair cells, of the vestibular sensory epithelium. In the cochlea, Hes1 is selectively expressed in the greater epithelial ridge and lesser epithelial ridge regions which are adjacent to inner and outer hair cells. Co-transfection experiments in postnatal rat explant cultures show that overexpression of Hes1 prevents hair cell differentiation induced by Math1. Therefore Hes1 can negatively regulate hair cell differentiation by antagonizing Math1. These results suggest that a balance between Math1 and negative regulators such as Hes1 is crucial for the production of an appropriate number of inner ear hair cells.


1983 ◽  
Vol 92 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 3-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomonori Takasaka ◽  
Hideich Shinkawa ◽  
Kozo Watanuki ◽  
Sho Hashimoto ◽  
Kazutomo Kawamoto

The technique and some preliminary results of the application of high-voltage electron microscopy (HVEM) to the study of inner ear morphology in the guinea pig are reported in this paper. The main advantage of HVEM is that sharp images of thicker specimens can be obtained because of the greater penetrating power of high energy electrons. The optimum thickness of the sections examined with an accelerating voltage of 1,000 kV was found to be between 500 to 800 nm. The sections below 500 nm in thickness often had insufficient contrast, while those above 800 nm were rather difficult to interpret due to overlap of images of the organelles. The whole structure of the sensory hairs from the tip to the rootlet was more frequently observed in the 800-nm thick sections. Thus the fine details of the hair attachment to the tectorial membrane as well as the hair rootlet extension into the cuticular plate could be thoroughly studied in the HVEM. In specimens fixed in aldehyde containing 2% tannic acid, the attachment of the tips of the outer hair cell stereocilia to the tectorial membrane was observed. For the inner hair cells, however, the tips of the hairs were separated from the undersurface of the tectorial membrane. The majority of the rootlets of the outer hair cells terminated at the midportion of the cuticular plate, while most of the inner hair cell rootlets traversed the entire width of the cuticular plate and extended into the apical cytoplasm. These differences in ultrastructural appearance may indicate that the two kinds of hair cells play different roles in the acoustic transduction process. The three-dimensional arrangement of the nerve endings on the hair cells was also studied by the serial thick-sectioning technique in the HVEM. In general, an entire arrangement of the nerve endings was almost completely cut in less than ten 800-nm thick sections instead of the 50- to 100-ultrathin (ie, less than 100 nm) conventional sections for transmission electron microscopy. The present study confirms an earlier report that the first row outer hair cells in the third cochlear turn are innervated by nearly equal numbers of efferent and afferent endings, the average number being nine.


eLife ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meenakshi Prajapati-DiNubila ◽  
Ana Benito-Gonzalez ◽  
Erin Jennifer Golden ◽  
Shuran Zhang ◽  
Angelika Doetzlhofer

The mammalian auditory sensory epithelium has one of the most stereotyped cellular patterns known in vertebrates. Mechano-sensory hair cells are arranged in precise rows, with one row of inner and three rows of outer hair cells spanning the length of the spiral-shaped sensory epithelium. Aiding such precise cellular patterning, differentiation of the auditory sensory epithelium is precisely timed and follows a steep longitudinal gradient. The molecular signals that promote auditory sensory differentiation and instruct its graded pattern are largely unknown. Here, we identify Activin A and its antagonist follistatin as key regulators of hair cell differentiation and show, using mouse genetic approaches, that a local gradient of Activin A signaling within the auditory sensory epithelium times the longitudinal gradient of hair cell differentiation. Furthermore, we provide evidence that Activin-type signaling regulates a radial gradient of terminal mitosis within the auditory sensory epithelium, which constitutes a novel mechanism for limiting the number of inner hair cells being produced.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tyler T. Hickman ◽  
Ken Hashimoto ◽  
Leslie D. Liberman ◽  
M. Charles Liberman

AbstractOverexposure to intense noise can destroy the synapses between auditory nerve fibers and their hair cell targets without destroying the hair cells themselves. In adult mice, this synaptopathy is immediate and largely irreversible, whereas, in guinea pigs, counts of immunostained synaptic puncta can recover with increasing post-exposure survival. Here, we asked whether this recovery simply reflects changes in synaptic immunostaining, or whether there is actual retraction and extension of neurites and/or synaptogenesis. Analysis of the numbers, sizes and spatial distribution of pre- and post-synaptic markers on cochlear inner hair cells, in guinea pigs surviving from 1 day to 6 months after a synaptopathic exposure, shows dramatic synaptic re-organization during the recovery period in which synapse counts recover from 16 to 91% of normal in the most affected regions. Synaptic puncta move all over the hair cell membrane during recovery, translocating far from their normal positions at the basolateral pole, and auditory-nerve terminals extend towards the hair cell’s apical end to re-establish contact with them. These observations provide stronger evidence for spontaneous neural regeneration in a mature mammalian cochlea than can be inferred from synaptic counts alone.


1994 ◽  
Vol 110 (4) ◽  
pp. 419-427 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilsa Schwartz ◽  
Chong-Sun Kim ◽  
See-Ok Shin

Guinea pigs were irradiated with fast neutrons. After a single dose of 2, 6, 10, or 15 Gy was applied, scanning and transmission electron microscopy of the temporal bone was performed to assess the effect of fast neutron irradiation on the cochlea. Outer hair cell damage appeared with neutron irradiation of more than 10 Gy, and Inner hair cell damage with neutron Irradiation of more than 15 Gy. Outer hair cells were more severely damaged than Inner hair cells. No statistically significant differences were found in damage of basal, middle, and apical turns. The second and third rows of outer hair cells were more severely damaged than the first row of outer hair cells. The most significant findings in transmission electron microscopy were clumping of chromatin and extension of the heterochromatin in the nuclei of hair cells. The cytoplasmic changes were sequestration of cytoplasm, various changes of mitochondria, formation of vacuoles, and irregularly arranged stereocilia. The morphologic change in stria vascularis was intercellular and perivascular fluid accumulation. It appeared to be a reversible process.


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