Bone marrow transplantation as a strategy for the treatment of autoimmune hearing loss in MRL/Mp-lpr/lpr mice

Sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) has been reported to develop as a main part of or in combination with systemic and organ-specific autoimmune diseases. The aim of the current study is to treat autoimmune SNHL. in MRL, Mp-lpr/lpr (MRL/lpr) mice, a Murine model of systemic autoimmune disease, using allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT), which replaces recipient bone marrow cells with bone marrow cells from a non-autoimmune-prone donor. The results indicate that BMT can be used to treat SNHL.; cochlear pathology. serum autoantibodies and lupus nephritis are ameliorated. Therefore, it is conceivable that the autoimmune SNHL in the MRL/lpr mice results not from defects in the cochlea, including the stria vascularis, but from defects in tire bone marrow, and BMT would therefore provide a curative effect on inner ear autoimmune dysfunction associated with systemic autoimmune diseases, (C) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.