Project description:We performed a microarray analysis of auditory midbrain (inferior colliculus, IC) mRNA from young adult CBA mice (controls) with good hearing, middle aged (MA) with good hearing, and old mild (MP) and severe (SP) presbycusic CBA mice. Fold Change data derived from RMA normalization revealed that the overall GABA receptor alpha 6 expression profiles for MA, MP and SP were down-regulated relative to young adult controls with good hearing. Relative real-time PCR for five GABA receptors confirmed this age-related down regulation quantitatively. Functional hearing data: Auditory Brainstem Responses (ABR) enriched the analysis to select the probe-sets that changed with age and hearing loss by the linear regression best-fit line model technique. GABA receptor genotype-phenotype correlations with auditory functional data indicated that GABA-receptor subtypes are under expressed in SP mice. Hierarchical clustering (HC) analyses yielded statistical significance of normalized GeneChip data Real-time PCR showed that Gabra6, GABA B receptor 1 (Gabbr1), and Gaba transporter protein Slc32a1 may be involved in physiological changes that occur in age-related hearing loss. Presbycusis – age-related hearing loss – is the number one communicative disorder of our aged population. In this study we analyzed gene expression for a set of GABA receptors in the inferior colliculus of aging CBA mice using the Affymetrix GeneChip MOE430A. Functional phenotypic hearing changes from RMA normalized microarray data (39 replicates) in four age-groups, Young Controls and Middle aged mice with good hearing, mild and sever e presbycusis from old mice. Fold change gene expression derived from RMA normalized data were first subjected to one-way ANOVA, and then linear regression was performed. The selected gene expression changes were confirmed by relative real-time relative to young adult controls with good hearing. Statistically significant and real time PCR confirmed GABA receptor genes; Gabra6, GABA B receptor 1 (Gabbr1), and Gaba transporter protein Slc32a1, may be involved in physiological changes that occur in age-related hearing loss. Lastly, gene expression measures of each age group were correlated with pathway/network relationships relevant to the inferior colliculus using Pathway Architect, to identify key pathways consistent with the gene expression changes observed In the study of Expression changes in IC GABA receptors in the Auditory Midbrain of young adult and aging presbycusis mice total of thirty nine chips were used. The normal aging mice were in Four groups Young adults Controls with good hearing (8 mice, 8 MOE430A GeneChips), Middle aged group with good hearing ( 17 mice, 17 MOE430A GeneChips), Mild Presbycusis with limited hearing loss (9 mice, 9 MOE430A GeneChips) and Severe Presbycusis (5 mice, 5 MOE430A GeneChips).
Project description:Age-related hearing loss (ARHL) is a threat to future human wellbeing. Multiple factors contributing to the terminal auditory decline have been identified; but a unified understanding of ARHL - or the homeostatic maintenance of hearing before its breakdown - is missing. We here present an in-depth analysis of homeostasis and ageing in the antennal ears of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. We show that Drosophila, just like humans, display ARHL. By focusing on the phase of dynamic stability prior to the eventual hearing loss we discovered a set of evolutionarily conserved homeostasis genes. The transcription factors Onecut (closest human orthologues: ONECUT2, ONECUT3), Optix (SIX3, SIX6), Worniu (SNAI2) and Amos (ATOH1, ATOH7, ATOH8, NEUROD1) emerged as key regulators, acting upstream of core components of the fly’s molecular machinery for auditory transduction and amplification. Adult-specific manipulation of homeostatic regulators in the fly’s auditory neurons accelerated - or protected against - ARHL.
Project description:Myelinating glia in the auditory system enclose auditory nerve fibers, providing an insulating effect that facilitates rapid transfer of auditory information from the ear to the brain. Here we show that noise exposure at the levels sufficient for inducing hearing loss cause a rapid cellular and molecular response on myelinating glia that precedes neuron degeneration. The response is characterized by inflammatory response, myelin dysmorphology and widespread changes in myelin-related gene expression. Another characteristic was change in expression of the quaking gene (QKI), which encodes a group of RNA binding proteins that are enriched in myelinating glia. Changes in QKI were accompanied by changes in numerous known and potential QKI target genes, including many genes associated with myelination. Our results implicate QKI as a critical early component in the noise response, influencing glia dysfunction that leads to auditory nerve demyelination and, ultimately, sensorineural hearing loss.
Project description:Age-related hearing loss (AHL) is the progressive loss of auditory function with aging. The DBA/2J (DBA) mice have been used as a model of AHL and undergoes progressive, age-related hearing loss by 12 weeks of age. Here we analyzed cochlear gene expression of 7-week-old and 36-week-old DBA mice using microarrays. Auditory brainstem response (ABR) analysis confrimed that severe age-related hearing loss occured in 36-week-old mice, whereas moderate hearing loss occured in 7-week-old mice. Comprehensive gene expression analysis identified genes correlated with AHL and revealeed that 15 mitochondrial process categories, including â??mitochondrial electron transport chainâ??, â??oxidative phosphorylationâ??, â??respiratory chain complex Iâ??, â??respiratory chain complex IVâ??, and â??respiratory chain complex Vâ??, were statistically associated with AHL-correlated genes in the cochlea of 36-week-old DBA mice, and that 25 genes encoding components of the mitochondrial respiratory chain (respiratory chain complex I, IV, and V) were significantly down-regulated in the cochlea. These observations provide evidence that AHL is associated with down-regulation of genes involved in the mitochondrial respiratory chain in the cochlea of DBA mice, and suggest that mitochondrial respiratory chain dysfunction may be a key feature of AHL in mammalian cochlea. Experiment Overall Design: To determine the effects of age-related hearing loss, each 7-week-old sample (n = 3) was compared to each 36-week-old sample (n = 3), generating a total of nine pairwise comparisons. Using DAVIS and EASE, the identified genes were assign to â??GO: Biological Processâ?? categories of Gene Ontology Consortium. Furthermore, we used EASE to determine the total number of genes that were assigned to each biological process category, and to perform Fisher exact test. Quality control measures were not used. No replicates were done. Dye swap was not used.
Project description:Alternative splicing contributes to gene expression dynamics in many tissues, yet its role in auditory development remains unclear. We performed whole exome sequencing in individuals with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) and identified pathogenic mutations in Epithelial Splicing Regulatory Protein 1 (ESRP1). Patient derived induced pluripotent stem cells showed alternative splicing defects consistent with impaired ESRP1 function. To determine how mutations in ESRP1 cause hearing loss we evaluated Esrp1-/- mouse embryos and uncovered alterations in cochlear morphogenesis, auditory hair cell differentiation and cell fate specification. Transcriptome analysis revealed impaired expression and splicing of genes with essential roles in inner ear development and auditory function. In particular, aberrant splicing of Fgfr2 blocked stria vascularis formation due to erroneous ligand usage, which was corrected by reducing Fgf9 gene dosage. These findings implicate mutations in ESRP1 as a novel cause of SNHL and demonstrate the complex interplay between alternative splicing, inner ear development, and auditory function.
Project description:Age-related hearing loss is a multifactorial and progressive process, which negatively impacts quality of life in many senior adults as the number one chronic neurodegenerative condition. This study was done to examine gene expression changes occurring in mouse auditory nerve and cochlear lateral wall tissues that may contribute to age-related hearing loss. In addition to conducting general differential expression analysis, a focused analysis of genes linked to neural cells was done.
Project description:Hearing mediates many behaviors critical for survival in echolocating bats, including foraging and navigation. Although most mammals are susceptible to progressive age-related hearing loss, the evolution of biosonar, which requires the ability to hear low-intensity echoes from outgoing sonar signals, may have selected against the development of hearing deficits in bats. Many echolocating bats exhibit exceptional longevity and rely on acoustic behaviors for survival to old age; however relatively little is known about the aging bat auditory system. In this study, we used DNA methylation to estimate the ages of wild-caught big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) and measured hearing sensitivity in young and aging bats using auditory brainstem responses (ABRs) and distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs). We found no evidence for hearing deficits in bats up to 12.5 years of age, demonstrated by comparable thresholds and similar ABR and DPOAE amplitudes across age groups. We additionally found no significant histological evidence for cochlear aging, with similar hair cell counts, afferent, and efferent innervation patterns in young and aging bats. Here we demonstrate that big brown bats show minimal evidence for age-related hearing loss and therefore represent informative models for investigating mechanisms that may preserve hearing function over a long lifetime.
Project description:We performed a microarray analysis of auditory midbrain (inferior colliculus, IC) mRNA from young adult CBA mice (controls) with good hearing, middle aged (MA) with good hearing, and old mild (MP) and severe (SP) presbycusic CBA mice. Fold Change data derived from RMA normalization revealed that the overall GABA receptor alpha 6 expression profiles for MA, MP and SP were down-regulated relative to young adult controls with good hearing. Relative real-time PCR for five GABA receptors confirmed this age-related down regulation quantitatively. Functional hearing data: Auditory Brainstem Responses (ABR) enriched the analysis to select the probe-sets that changed with age and hearing loss by the linear regression best-fit line model technique. GABA receptor genotype-phenotype correlations with auditory functional data indicated that GABA-receptor subtypes are under expressed in SP mice. Hierarchical clustering (HC) analyses yielded statistical significance of normalized GeneChip data Real-time PCR showed that Gabra6, GABA B receptor 1 (Gabbr1), and Gaba transporter protein Slc32a1 may be involved in physiological changes that occur in age-related hearing loss. Presbycusis – age-related hearing loss – is the number one communicative disorder of our aged population. In this study we analyzed gene expression for a set of GABA receptors in the inferior colliculus of aging CBA mice using the Affymetrix GeneChip MOE430A. Functional phenotypic hearing changes from RMA normalized microarray data (39 replicates) in four age-groups, Young Controls and Middle aged mice with good hearing, mild and sever e presbycusis from old mice. Fold change gene expression derived from RMA normalized data were first subjected to one-way ANOVA, and then linear regression was performed. The selected gene expression changes were confirmed by relative real-time relative to young adult controls with good hearing. Statistically significant and real time PCR confirmed GABA receptor genes; Gabra6, GABA B receptor 1 (Gabbr1), and Gaba transporter protein Slc32a1, may be involved in physiological changes that occur in age-related hearing loss. Lastly, gene expression measures of each age group were correlated with pathway/network relationships relevant to the inferior colliculus using Pathway Architect, to identify key pathways consistent with the gene expression changes observed
Project description:Age-related hearing loss (AHL) is the progressive loss of auditory function with aging. The DBA/2J (DBA) mice have been used as a model of AHL and undergoes progressive, age-related hearing loss by 12 weeks of age. Here we analyzed cochlear gene expression of 7-week-old and 36-week-old DBA mice using microarrays. Auditory brainstem response (ABR) analysis confrimed that severe age-related hearing loss occured in 36-week-old mice, whereas moderate hearing loss occured in 7-week-old mice. Comprehensive gene expression analysis identified genes correlated with AHL and revealeed that 15 mitochondrial process categories, including “mitochondrial electron transport chain”, “oxidative phosphorylation”, “respiratory chain complex I”, “respiratory chain complex IV”, and “respiratory chain complex V”, were statistically associated with AHL-correlated genes in the cochlea of 36-week-old DBA mice, and that 25 genes encoding components of the mitochondrial respiratory chain (respiratory chain complex I, IV, and V) were significantly down-regulated in the cochlea. These observations provide evidence that AHL is associated with down-regulation of genes involved in the mitochondrial respiratory chain in the cochlea of DBA mice, and suggest that mitochondrial respiratory chain dysfunction may be a key feature of AHL in mammalian cochlea. Keywords: Disease state analysis, Time course analysis
Project description:To show that FST cooperates with SHH to establish tonotopy by promoting apical cochlear characteristics responsible for low-frequency hearing in mammals, we analyzed cochlear gene expression, morphology, and auditory function of mouse mutants with loss or gain of SHH function in combination with loss or gain of follistatin (FST) function.