Quinazoline alleviates inner ear damage by enhancing the proliferation and differentiation of neural stem cells.

BACKGROUND

Neural stem cell (NSC) transplantation exerts therapeutic effects on inner ear damage and pretreatment with quinazoline compounds may further enhance this efficacy.

OBJECTIVES

This study aimed to investigate whether quinazoline alleviates inner ear damage by enhancing the proliferation and differentiation of NSCs.

METHODS

Forty Hartley guinea pigs were randomly assigned to four groups. Hippocampal NSCs isolated from neonatal guinea pigs were pretreated with quinazoline and transplanted into animals with cisplatin-induced hearing loss. Evaluations included NSC proliferation and differentiation, auditory brainstem response (ABR) thresholds and miR-183 expression in cochlear tissues.

RESULTS

Quinazoline pretreatment significantly enhanced NSC proliferation and differentiation (P<0.05). After transplantation, the group receiving quinazoline-pretreated NSCs showed a significantly lower ABR threshold (reflecting an approximately 10 dB improvement in hearing recovery) than the group receiving untreated NSCs (P<0.05). This was accompanied by more pronounced structural repair of the cochlea and a significant upregulation of miR-183 expression (P<0.05).

CONCLUSION

Quinazoline promotes the repair of inner ear injury by enhancing the proliferation and differentiation of NSCs, a mechanism that appears to be associated with the upregulation of miR-183 expression.