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Updated: Jun 8, 2026
Construction and Characterization of a Novel Vocal Fold Bioreactor
Published on: August 1, 2014
Effects of raised-intensity phonation on inflammatory mediator gene expression in normal rabbit vocal fold
Erik R Swanson1, Tsunehisa Ohno, Dave Abdollahian
1Department of Otolaryngology, Vanderbilt University Bill Wilkerson Center for Otolaryngology and Communication Sciences, Nashville, TN, USA.
Objective:
To investigate the hypothesis that a transient episode of raised-intensity phonation causes a significant increase in vocal fold inflammatory messenger RNA (mRNA) expression in vivo.
Study Design:
Prospective animal study.
Setting:
Laboratory.
Subjects And Methods:
Ten New Zealand White breeder rabbits received 30 minutes of experimentally induced modal or raised-intensity phonation, followed by a 30-minute recovery period. A separate group of five rabbits served as sham controls. Real-time polymerase chain reaction was performed to investigate the mRNA expression of interleukin 1beta (IL-1beta), transforming growth factor beta-1 (TGFbeta1), and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2). Separate one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests were used to investigate differences in gene expression across groups, with an appropriate alpha correction of 0.016 to control for type I error. Significant main effects were further examined using Fisher's least significant difference.
Results:
ANOVA revealed that there were differences for IL-1beta, TGFbeta1, and COX-2 between sham control, modal phonation, and raised-intensity phonation (P 0.0001). Pairwise comparisons revealed that the expression of IL-1beta, COX-2, and TGFbeta1 increased significantly during raised-intensity phonation, compared to modal phonation and sham control (P 0.0001).
Conclusion:
Results provided support for the hypothesis that a transient episode of raised-intensity phonation causes a significant increase in vocal fold inflammatory mRNA expression. Future studies will investigate the signal transduction pathways and mechanisms regulating the vocal fold inflammatory response. The long-term goal of these studies is to advance understanding of the molecular and cellular events underlying phonation-related tissue alterations.
