[Experimental research of autoimmune inner ear disease]

16 guinea pigs were immunized with homologous crude inner ear antigen. Their hearing thresholds were recorded, morphological changes in inner ear were observed, autoantibodies against inner ear were tested. We found that these animals uniformly developed antibodies to inner ear antigen in their sera; 12 of 32 ears showed significant increases in Ap (N1) thresholds (P < 0.01); endolymphatic hydrops, vasculitis of modiolus, degeneration and loss of the cochlear neural elements were the main histopathological lesions; and especially IgG deposition was noted in the modiolar vessels and stria vascularis in most of the examined cochlears. These indicated that an experimental model of AIED can be established in partial immunized guinea pigs.