Morphologic damage and changes of intracellular calcium-binding sites after acute noise trauma in the organ of Corti of the guinea pig.

In guinea pigs, an acute acoustic trauma was created by 6 consecutive gunshots. The sound pressure at the ear drum was 156 +/- 4 dB, the frequency maximum was between 4 and 6 kHz. Sixty hours after the noise trauma, the animals were decapitated, and the cochleae were prepared for microscopic analysis of the resulting trauma to the organ of Corti. During the process of fixation, the potassium-pyroantimonate precipitation reaction was performed to localize calcium-binding sites. The pattern of cell morphology and the distribution of calcium-binding sites was compared to that of normal control animals. Morphologic changes of the cells in the organ of Corti correlated with changes of the cellular calcium distribution, indicating the crucial role of calcium in cell damage and necrosis after acute noise trauma.