The sensitive period for induction of susceptibility to audiogenic seizures by kanamycin in mice.

It has been found that administration of kanamycin (400 mg/kg daily) for 5 days was highly effective in inducing susceptibility to audiogenic seizures in BALB/c mice, if the drug was administered between the age of 10-14 postnatal days. The same drug dosage administered between the age of 5-19, 15-19, or 20-24 postnatal days was found to be ineffective. Since induction of seizure susceptibility is highly correlated with the degree of cochlear damage produced by either ototoxic drugs or noise, it was suggested that the age of 10-14 postnatal days could be the most sensitive period for the ototoxic effect of kanamycin.