title: Effects of delayed treatment with combined GDNF and continuous electrical stimulation on spiral ganglion cell survival in deafened guinea pigs.
abstract: Electrical stimulation (ES) of spiral ganglion cells (SGC) via a cochlear implant is the standard treatment for profound sensor neural hearing loss. However, loss of hair cells as the morphological correlate of sensor neural hearing loss leads to deafferentation and death of SGC. Although immediate treatment with ES or glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) can prevent degeneration of SGC, only few studies address the effectiveness of delayed treatment. We hypothesize that both interventions have a synergistic effect and that even delayed treatment would protect SGC. Therefore, an electrode connected to a pump was implanted into the left cochlea of guinea pigs 3 weeks after deafening. The contralateral untreated cochleae served as deafened intraindividual controls. Four groups were set up. Control animals received intracochlear infusion of artificial perilymph (AP/-). The experimental groups consisted of animals treated with AP in addition to continuous ES (AP/ES) or treated with GDNF alone (GDNF/-) or GDNF combined with continuous ES (GDNF/ES). Acoustically and electrically evoked auditory brain stem responses were recorded. All animals were killed 48 days after deafening; their cochleae were histologically evaluated. Survival of SGC increased significantly in the GDNF/- and AP/ES group compared with the AP/- group. A highly significant increase in SGC density was observed in the GDNF/ES group compared with the control group. Additionally, animals in the GDNF/ES group showed reduced EABR thresholds. Thus, delayed treatment with GDNF and ES can protect SGC from degeneration and may improve the benefits of cochlear implants.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Medical University Hannover, Hannover, Germany. Scheper.Verena@MH-Hannover.de
authors.forename: Verena
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Scheper
authors.forename: Gerrit
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Paasche
authors.forename: Josef M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: Athanasia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Warnecke
authors.forename: Nurdanat
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Berkingali
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lenarz
authors.forename: Timo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Stöver
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000818:Animals; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D002470:Cell Survival; D019929:Cochlear Implantation; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D003638:Deafness / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D004599:Electric Stimulation Therapy; D016057:Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem; D051100:Glial Cell Line-Derived Neurotrophic Factor / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006168:Guinea Pigs; D008297:Male; D009474:Neurons / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D013136:Spiral Ganglion / Q000187:drug effects / Q000473:pathology*
chemical_list: D051100:Glial Cell Line-Derived Neurotrophic Factor