Axonal sprouting in the dorsal cochlear nucleus affects gap ‑prepulse inhibition following noise exposure.
Axonal sprouting in the dorsal cochlear nucleus affects gap‑prepulse inhibition following noise exposure.
Int J Mol Med. 2019 Aug 19;:
Authors: Han KH, Mun SK, Sohn S, Piao XY, Park I, Chang M
Abstract
One of the primary theories of the pathogenesis of tinnitus involves maladaptive auditory‑somatosensory plasticity in the dorsal cochlear nucleus (DCN), which is assumed to be due to axonal sprouting. Although a disrupted balance between auditory and somatosensory inputs may occur following hearing damage and may induce tinnitus, examination of this phenomenon employed a model of hearing damage that does not account for the causal relationship between these changes and tinnitus. The present study aimed to investigate changes in auditory‑somatosensory innervation and the role that axonal sprouting serves in this process by comparing results between animals with and without tinnitus. Rats were exposed to a noise‑inducing temporary threshold shift and were subsequently divided into tinnitus and non‑tinnitus groups based on the results of gap prepulse inhibition of the acoustic startle reflex. DCNs were collected from rats divided into three sub‑groups according to the number of weeks (1, 2 or 3) following noise exposure, and the protein levels of vesicular glutamate transporter 1 (VGLUT1), which is associated with auditory input to the DCN, and VGLUT2, which is in turn primarily associated with somatosensory inputs, were asses...
Source: International Journal of Molecular Medicine - Category: Molecular Biology Authors: Han KH, Mun SK, Sohn S, Piao XY, Park I, Chang M Tags: Int J Mol Med Source Type: research