Reversibility of experimental cholesteatoma epithelium using Mongolian gerbils.
CONCLUSIONS
The results of this study encourage our belief that some cholesteatomas can be managed using only conservative treatments.


OBJECTIVE
We hypothesized that once cholesteatoma is in a normal environment, its cellular or molecular pathology can revert to those characteristic of normal epidermis. The aim of this study was to determine whether or not common molecular characteristics of cholesteatoma were reversible after removal of inductive factors in experimental cholesteatoma induced in gerbils.


METHODS
We induced cholesteatoma using ear canal ligation in Mongolian gerbils. After ligation, the animals in the treated group were managed for 2 weeks. We examined differences between treated and untreated cholesteatomas using terminal deoxynucleotide transferase-mediated dUTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL) staining and an immunohistochemical technique using the proliferation markers proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and cytokeratin (CK).


RESULTS
With PCNA and CK 13/16, the untreated group showed positive staining in the suprabasal and basal cells, but the treated group showed weakly positive staining only in the basal cell layer. With TUNEL staining, there were more positive cells in the untreated than the treated group.
Park
Keehyun
K
Department of Otolaryngology, Ajou University School of Medicine, Suwon, South Korea. parkkh@ajou.ac.kr
Choung
Yun-Hoon
YH
Chun
Young-Myoung
YM
Lee
Jin-Suk
JS
Hong
Sung Pyo
SP
D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000502:physiology; D018424:Cholesteatoma, Middle Ear / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D005849:Gerbillinae; D015603:Keratinocytes / Q000378:metabolism; D007633:Keratins / Q000378:metabolism; D018809:Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen / Q000378:metabolism
D018809:Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen; D007633:Keratins