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Updated: May 11, 2026
Modified Experimental Conditions for Noise-Induced Hearing Loss in Mice and Assessment of Hearing Function and Outer Hair Cell Damage
Published on: February 10, 2023
[Study on conditional myosin light chain kinase gene knockout mice resulting in hearing loss]
Guang-Jie Zhu1, Deng-Bin Ma, Xiao-Yun Qian
1Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Drum Tower Hospital, Nanjing University Medical School, Nanjing 210008, China.
Objective:
To investigate the function of myosin light chain kinase (MLCK) in hearing in mouse by generating inner hair cell-specific Mlck knockout mice and analyze the effect on their hearing.
Methods:
Cross Mlck floxed mice with IHC-Cre mice, the genotype and knockout efficiency were confirmed by PCR. We used auditory brain stem response (ABR) to evaluate mice hearing function at different frequencies.
Results:
Mlck knockout mice were selected by mice tail DNA genotyping and confirmed the deletion of the target gene by isolated inner hair cell DNA genotyping. Mlck-deficient mice showed impaired hearing with a rise in ABR threshold response to click and three different pure tones (8 kHz, 16 kHz, 32 kHz), and the rise was over 20 dB at high-frequency(32 kHz). Further analyses of waveforms showed that wave-I amplitudes on 60 dB SPL, 50 dB SPL and 40 dBSPL in response to tone (16 kHz) were less than control group(P < 0.05) on average, but the ratio of wave I/II and I/III were not difference (P > 0.05).
Conclusions:
Mlck is successfully deleted in inner hair cell-specific Mlck knockout mice. Mlck knockout mice display a significantly higher threshold in response to click and tones, especially in high-frequencies.
