A new model for photochemically induced thrombosis in the inner ear microcirculation and the use of hearing loss as a measure for microcirculatory disorders

Summary A new photochemical method was employed to cause disorders in the inner ear's microcirculation, using the rat as an animal model. Hearing loss was used as a measure for establishing the altered microcirculation. Under pentobarbital anesthesia, the middle ear was opened by a ventral approach. The lateral wall of the cochlea was then illuminated with a filtered xenon lamp (wavelength 540 nm) while rose bengal was infused intravenously. Photoactivated rose bengal produces oxygen radicals and oxygen singlets, which subsequently damage the vascular epithelium to cause the adhesion and aggregation of platelets in the small vessels. Disintegration of the inner ear hair cells at the irradiated site became evident 24 h after the illumination. These findings further suggest that the photochemical occlusion in the inner ear's microcirculation led to ischemic damage of the stria vascularis and the hair cells in the inner ear. When the action potential (AP) of the cochlea was measured with an electrocochleogram a gradual decrease occurred after the illumination. When acetylsalicylic acid was injected intravenously before treatment, the time required to completely suppress the AP was prolonged in a dose-dependent manner. Findings indicate that our method causes a photochemically induced occlusion in the inner ear's microcirculation and is therefore potentially useful for evaluating the various effects of drugs on the ear.Offprint requests to: K. Umemura, Department of Pharmacology, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, 3600 Handa-cho, Hamamatsu 431-31, Japan