Serum antibodies against heat shock protein 70 in Menière's disease

Menière's syndrome of fluctuating sensorineural hearing loss, episodic vertigo, and tinnitus is the clinical presentation resulting from several different pathologic processes. The present study was designed to probe for immunologic factors in Menière's disease. It has previously been shown that the presence of circulating antibodies against a 68-kD protein detected by Western blot immunoassay of serum from patients with idiopathic, progressive, bilateral sensorineural hearing loss (IPB SNHL) is highly correlated with both activity of disease and corticosteroid responsiveness of the hearing loss. The authors recently have identified the 68-kD protein as heat shock protein 70 (HSP70). This study presents a retrospective review of results of Western blot assays in 30 patients meeting strict AAO-HNS diagnostic criteria for Menière's disease. Overall, 47% of patients had anti-HSP70 antibodies. When broken down by clinical pattern, anti-HSP70 antibodies were present in 58.8% of bilateral Menière's disease, 37.5% of contralateral delayed endolymphatic hydrops, and 33.3% of unilateral Menière's disease with IPB SNHL in the second affected ear. Detection of antibodies to HSP may serve to identify a subset of patients with Menière's disease in whom immunologic factors have a pathogenic role.