A Transmission Electron Microscope Observation of Spiral Organ of Cochleae with Noise-induced Threshold Shift / 第二军医大学学报

ABSTRACT

Guinea pigs were exposed to either 110dB SPL white noise for 30min (ITS group )or 120 dB SPL for 150 nun (PTS group). At varying postexposure intervals, threshold shifts were assessed using auditory cortex evoked response to tone bursts and intracellular ultrastructural changes in the spiral organ of cochleae were exmained with a transmission electron microscope.. The threshold shifts induced by 110dB noise were reversible while those induced by 120dB noise were generally irreversible. In the TTS cochleae, damage was confined to the third row of OHCs where depolymerization of actin filaments within the stereocilia, slight celluar swelling and small vacuolization were found. The subnuclear area and nerve-endings were not involved. In the PTS cochleae, the inner hair cells (IHCs) and the first row of OHCs were affected. The abnormilities consisted of ruptures and holes in the cuticular plates, fusion of stereocilia, marked edema, tranclucence of subcuticular region, swelling of submembraneous cisterns and large vesiculation in the efferent nerve-endings blow OHCs. Based on the ultrastructural observations, structural bases in cochleae for TTS and PTS, sequence of pathological changes in hair cells as well as reversibility of specific pathologies were suggested.