title: Reversibility of experimental cholesteatoma epithelium using Mongolian gerbils.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Ajou University School of Medicine, Suwon, South Korea. parkkh@ajou.ac.kr
authors.forename: Keehyun
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Yun-Hoon
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Choung
authors.forename: Young-Myoung
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Chun
authors.forename: Jin-Suk
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Sung Pyo
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Hong
mesh_terms: 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
chemical_list: D018809:Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen; D007633:Keratins