Project description:The sense of hearing originates in the cochlea, which detects sounds across dynamic sensory environments. Like other peripheral organs, the cochlea is subjected to environmental insults, including loud, damage-inducing sounds. In response to internal and external stimuli, the central nervous system directly modulates cochlear function through olivocochlear neurons (OCNs), which are located in the brainstem and innervate the cochlear sensory epithelium. One population of OCNs, the lateral olivocochlear (LOC) neurons, target spiral ganglion neurons (SGNs), the primary sensory neurons of the ear. LOCs alter their transmitter expression for days to weeks in response to noise exposure (NE), suggesting that they are well-positioned to tune SGN excitability over long time periods in response to auditory experience. To examine how LOCs affect auditory function after NE, we characterized the transcriptional profiles of OCNs and found that LOCs exhibit transient changes in gene expression after NE, including upregulation of multiple neuropeptide-encoding genes.
Project description:In order to elucidate molecular mechanisms of noise-induced hearing loss in the cochlea (inner ear), transcriptome of the cochlear sample was analyzed after induction of hearing loss by exposure to intense noise in mice. Cochlear transcriptome was analyzed at 3 hours following the noise exposure.
Project description:In order to elucidate molecular mechanisms of noise-induced hearing loss and dexamethasone therapy in the cochlea (inner ear), transcriptome of cochlear samples was analyzed after induction of hearing loss by exposure to intense noise in mice. Dexamethasone was intraperitoneally injected immediately following the noise trauma. Cochlear transcriptome was analyzed at 12h and 24h following the noise trauma and dexamethasone administration.
Project description:The molecular mechanisms underlying the great differences in susceptibility to noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) exhibited by both humans and laboratory animals are unknown. Using microarray technology, the present study demonstrates that the effects of noise overexposure on the expression of molecules likely to be important to the development of NIHL differ among inbred mice that have distinctive susceptibilities to NIHL including B6.CAST, 129X1/SvJ, and 129S1/SvImJ. The noise-exposure protocol produced, on average, a permanent loss of about 40 dB in sensitivity for auditory brainstem responses in susceptible B6.CAST mice, but no threshold elevations for the two resistant 129S1/SvImJ and 129X1/SvJ substrains. Measurements of noise-induced gene expression changes 6 h after the noise exposure revealed significant alterations in the expression levels of 48 genes in the resistant mice, while by these same criteria, there were seven differentially expressed genes in the susceptible B6.CAST mice. Differentially expressed genes in both groups of mice included subsets of transcription factors. However, only in the resistant mice was there a significant induction of proteins involved in cell-survival pathways such as HSP70, HSP40, p21, GADD45ï¢, Ier3, and Nfï«ï¢iïº. Moreover, increased expression of three of these factors after noise was confirmed at the protein level. Drastically enhanced HSP70, GADD45ï¢, and p21 immunostaining were detected 6 h after the noise exposure in subsets of cells of the lateral wall, spiral limbus, and organ of Corti as well as in cochlear nerve fibers. Upregulation of these proteins after noise exposure likely contributes to the prevalence of survival cellular pathways and thus to the resistance to NIHL that is characteristic of the 129X1/SvJ mice. Experiment Overall Design: Female 10-wk-old mice of the B6.CAST and 129X1/SvJ strains were divided randomly into non-noise control and noise-exposure groups. The non-noise mice served as controls in the gene-profiling experiments to control for the stress induced by experimenter handling and/or confinement of the mice in the noise-exposure chamber that was not directly related to the noise. This mice were in the noise chamber for a sham exposure. In contrast, the ânoiseâ groups were exposed to a 105-dB SPL, 10-kHz octave band of noise for 1 h and sacrificed 6 h after the exposure. Of each of these major groups, eight mice were used for each of three 129X1/SvJ control and three noise-exposed 129X1/SvJ arrays and two B6.CAST control and two noise-exposed B6.CAST arrays. Consequently within each subgroup the arrays are biological replicates.
Project description:In order to characterize the response to noise of various cell types in the inner ear, the cochleae from wild-type mice, naive or subjected to a 2h, 105 dB SPL noise insult, were dissected out. To further examine spiral ganglion neurons in more detail, non-neuronal populations were removed in one set of samples. In another set of samples, the lateral wall tissue was isolated to better understand how cells from the stria respond to noise insults. The resulting tissue was then dissociated to obtain a single cell suspension, and profiled by single cell RNA-seq.
Project description:Age-related hearing loss is a progressive sensorineural hearing loss that occurs as people get older. Degeneration of the organ of Corti and atrophy of the lateral wall of the cochlear duct (or scala media) in the inner ear are the two primary causes. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), a class of short non-coding RNAs that regulate the expression of mRNA/protein targets, are important regulators of cellular senescence and aging. We examined the change of miRNA gene expression profiles in the lateral wall of the cochlear duct in two mouse strains during aging The totoal RNA was extracted from the lateral wall of cochlear duct from CBA/J and C57BL/6J mice at different ages. The expression profile of miRNAs was examined by miR microarray GeneChip.
Project description:Age-related hearing loss is a progressive sensorineural hearing loss that occurs as people get older. Degeneration of the organ of Corti and atrophy of the lateral wall of the cochlear duct (or scala media) in the inner ear are the two primary causes. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), a class of short non-coding RNAs that regulate the expression of mRNA/protein targets, are important regulators of cellular senescence and aging. We examined the change of miRNA gene expression profiles in the lateral wall of the cochlear duct in two mouse strains during aging