Sato Kasumi, Araya Katherine, Wu Cathryn, Dong Emily, Watson Riley, Maskey Manjit, Nguyen Chau D, Khanipov Kamil, Yang Qing, Wu Zizhen
Department of Neurobiology, University of Texas Medical Branch, 301 University Blvd, Galveston, TX, 77555, USA.
Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, 77555, USA.
Sci Rep. 2025 Jul 2;15(1):23457. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-07669-0.
Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) is a widespread auditory disorder in industrialized nations, posing significant global and domestic health concerns. Despite its prevalence, the mechanisms underlying NIHL remain poorly understood, hindering the development of effective therapeutic interventions. Emerging evidence from clinical and animal studies suggests a potential relationship between altered gut microbiota and hearing loss, although causality remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the role of postnatal microbial signals in NIHL pathogenesis using acute noise exposure models in C57BL/6 mice. Our findings indicate that acute noise exposure does not significantly alter gut microbiota composition in this strain and that microbiota depletion does not confer protection against hearing loss following acute acoustic trauma. These results suggest no link between gut microbiota and acute NIHL in C57BL/6 mice.
噪声性听力损失（NIHL）在工业化国家是一种普遍存在的听觉障碍，引发了重大的全球和国内健康问题。尽管其普遍存在，但NIHL的潜在机制仍知之甚少，这阻碍了有效治疗干预措施的发展。临床和动物研究的新证据表明，肠道微生物群改变与听力损失之间可能存在关联，尽管因果关系尚不清楚。在本研究中，我们使用C57BL/6小鼠的急性噪声暴露模型，研究了产后微生物信号在NIHL发病机制中的作用。我们的研究结果表明，急性噪声暴露不会显著改变该品系小鼠的肠道微生物群组成，并且微生物群耗尽并不能在急性声创伤后提供听力损失保护。这些结果表明，C57BL/6小鼠的肠道微生物群与急性NIHL之间没有联系。
