Ear Sciences Centre, School of Surgery, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Nedlands, WA 6009, Australia.
Clin Transl Med. 2014 Mar 26;3(1):5. doi: 10.1186/2001-1326-3-5.
Tympanic membrane perforations (TMP) are relatively common but are typically not treated in their acute stage, as most will heal spontaneously in 7-10 days. Those cases which fail to heal within 3 months are called chronic TMP which attract surgical intervention (e.g. myringoplasty), typically with a temporalis fascia autograft. New materials for the repair of chronic TMP are being developed to address deficiencies in the performance of autografts by undergoing evaluation in animal models prior to clinical study. However, there is currently a lack of ideal chronic TMP animal models available, hindering the development of new treatments. Various techniques and animal species have been investigated for the creation of chronic TMP with varied success. In the present commentary, we bring to the attention of readers the recent report by Shen et al. in Journal of Translational Medicine. The study reported the creation of a chronic TMP animal model in plasminogen gene deficient mice. However, the short observation time (9, 19 days), lack of success rate and the scarcity of solid evidence (e.g. otoscopic & histologic images) to confirm the chronicity of TMP warrant a more thorough discussion.
鼓膜穿孔（TMP）较为常见，但在急性阶段通常不予治疗，因为大多数穿孔会在 7-10 天内自发愈合。未能在 3 个月内愈合的病例称为慢性 TMP，需要手术干预（例如鼓膜成形术），通常使用颞肌筋膜自体移植物。为了解决自体移植物性能的缺陷，正在开发用于修复慢性 TMP 的新材料，在进行临床研究之前，先在动物模型中进行评估。然而，目前缺乏理想的慢性 TMP 动物模型，这阻碍了新疗法的发展。为了创建慢性 TMP，已经研究了各种技术和动物物种，但成功率各不相同。在本评论中，我们提请读者注意最近 Shen 等人在《转化医学杂志》上的报告。该研究报告了在纤溶酶原基因缺失小鼠中创建慢性 TMP 动物模型。然而，观察时间短（9、19 天）、成功率低以及缺乏确凿证据（例如耳镜和组织学图像）来确认 TMP 的慢性特征，需要进行更深入的讨论。
