Bone marrow transplantation as a strategy for the treatment of autoimmune hearing loss in MRL/Mp-lpr/lpr mice

• Published in: Journal of neuroimmunology Vol. 168; no. 1; pp. 76 - 82
• Main Authors: Iwai, Hiroshi, Lee, Shinryu, Inaba, Muneo, Baba, Susumu, Yamashita, Toshio, Ikehara, Susumu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 01.11.2005
• Subjects: Acoustic Stimulation - methods; Animals; Autoantibodies - metabolism; Autoimmune disease; Autoimmune Diseases - surgery; Bone Marrow Transplantation - methods; Cochlea; Cochlea - metabolism; Cochlea - pathology; Cochlea - surgery; Disease Models, Animal; DNA, Single-Stranded - immunology; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay - methods; Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem - physiology; Female; Flow Cytometry - methods; Hearing Loss, Sensorineural - genetics; Hearing Loss, Sensorineural - surgery; Immunoglobulin G - immunology; Immunohistochemistry - methods; Lymphocytes - metabolism; Mice; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Mice, Inbred MRL lpr - surgery; Repressor Proteins - blood; Rheumatoid Factor - metabolism; Sensorineural hearing loss; Time Factors; Transplantation, Homologous - methods; BMT; Autoimmune disease; ABR; B6; RF; MRL/lpr; Sensorineural hearing loss; Cochlea; SNHL; CIC; ssDNA; [B6 to MRL/lpr] mice; ELISA
• ISSN: 0165-5728; 1872-8421
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jneuroim.2005.07.020

Sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) has been reported to develop as a main part of or in combination with systemic and organ-specific autoimmune diseases. The aim of the current study is to treat autoimmune SNHL in MRL/Mp-lpr/lpr (MRL/lpr) mice, a murine model of systemic autoimmune disease, using allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT), which replaces recipient bone marrow cells with bone marrow cells from a non-autoimmune-prone donor. The results indicate that BMT can be used to treat SNHL; cochlear pathology, serum autoantibodies and lupus nephritis are ameliorated. Therefore, it is conceivable that the autoimmune SNHL in the MRL/lpr mice results not from defects in the cochlea, including the stria vascularis, but from defects in the bone marrow, and BMT would therefore provide a curative effect on inner ear autoimmune dysfunction associated with systemic autoimmune diseases.