The Stria Vascularis in Mice and Humans is an Early Site of Age-Related Cochlear Degeneration, Macrophage Dysfunction, and Inflammation

• DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.4226200
• Publication Date: 2022-10-15T17:29:51Z
• Authors: Hainan Lang; Kenyaria V. Noble; Jeremy Barth; Jeffrey Rumschlag; Tyreek Jenkins; Shelby Storm; Mark Eckert; Judy Dubno; Bradley Schulte
• Keywords: Degeneration (medical)

Age-related hearing loss, or presbyacusis, is a common degenerative disorder affecting communication and quality of life for millions older adults. Multiple pathophysiologic manifestations, along with many cellular molecular alterations, have been linked to however, the initial events causal factors not clearly established. Comparisons transcriptome in lateral wall other cochlear regions mouse model “normal” age-related loss revealed that early pathophysiological alterations stria vascularis are associated increased macrophage activation signature indicative inflammaging, form immune dysfunction. Structure-function correlation analyses mice across lifespan showed age-dependent increase decline auditory sensitivity. High-resolution imaging analysis middle-aged aged human cochleas, transcriptomic changes gene expression, support hypothesis aberrant activity an important contributor strial dysfunction, pathology, loss. Thus, this study highlights as site degeneration, biomarker loss.Funding Information: This work was supported (in part) by National Institutes Health Grants P50 DC000422 (H.L., J.R.D., B.A.S.), K18 DC018517 (H.L.), T32 DC014435 (K.V.N., T.R.J., J.A.R.), P30 GM103342 (J.L.B.), P20 GM103499 (J.L.B.).Declaration Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interests.Ethics Approval Statement: In all cases temporal bone collection, written informed consent obtained from next-of-kin accordance South Carolina laws regulations. Temporal research approved MUSC Institutional Review Board subject (Pro0030845).