ABSTRACT
In our daily clinical practice, we have come across several patients suffering from a fluctuating sensorineural hearing loss of unknown origin. Such patients were sometimes treated with sucess by steroid administration. Some kinds of immune injury in the inner ear have been proposed as a possible pathogenesis. However, the minute mechanisms of immune injury in the inner ear and the way in which steroids improve the hearing loss remained obscure. We have previously reported that the MRL/MP-lpr/lpr(MRL/lpr) autoimmune strain of mice showed IgG deposition in the stria vascularis with elevated thresholds of auditory brainstem response. This strain of mice though to be a good model for studying immune mediated inner ear dysfunction. The purpose of this study was to evaluated the therapeutic efffects of prednisolone on the hearing impairment in MRL/lpr mice, morphologically and electrophysiologically.