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Combination photobiomodulation/N-acetyl-L-cysteine treatment appears to mitigate hair cell loss associated with noise-induced hearing loss in rats

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Abstract

Sensorineural hearing loss is an intractable disease. Acoustic overstimulation creates hearing loss; many patients exhibit social and emotional dysfunctions. In a model of noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL), low-level laser photobiomodulation (PBM) at a near-infrared wavelength significantly improved auditory brainstem response (ABR) thresholds. In addition, both N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC) and acetyl-L-carnitine (ALCAR) attenuated NIHL, reducing the effects of noise trauma in the cochlea and the central auditory system. Here, we combined PBM with antioxidants to explore hearing threshold recovery and morphological hair cell changes after rats were exposed to noise. The average auditory brainstem response thresholds after PBM/NAC combination treatment were reduced from the apex to the basal turn at all of 8, 16, and 32 kHz compared to the noise-only group. The PBM/NAC combination treated group exhibited intact outer hair cells in all turns, and significantly greater hair cell numbers in the middle and basal cochlear turns, than did controls. Thus, PBM/NAC treatment may prevent hearing dysfunction caused by NIHL.

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Funding

The authors thank Prof. Min Young Lee for his data discussion, data analysis and interpretation of this article. This study was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) (NRF - 2020R1C1C1009695), and supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (NRF-2020R1A6A1A03043283), and supported by the Creative Materials Discovery Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by Ministry of Science and ICT (NRF-2019M3D1A1078943).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, College of Medicine, Dankook University, 119 Dandae-ro, Cheonan, 31116, Republic of Korea

    Chung-Ku Rhee

  2. Beckman Laser Institute Korea, Dankook University, 119 Dandae-ro, Cheonan, 31116, Republic of Korea

    So-Young Chang

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  1. Chung-Ku Rhee
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Contributions

R.C.K: Conception and design, data discussion, data analysis and interpretation, C.S.Y.: Performance of experiments and data analysis, interpretation, manuscript writing.

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Correspondence to So-Young Chang.

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Rhee, CK., Chang, SY. Combination photobiomodulation/N-acetyl-L-cysteine treatment appears to mitigate hair cell loss associated with noise-induced hearing loss in rats. Lasers Med Sci 36, 1941–1947 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10103-021-03304-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10103-021-03304-2

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