Adoptive transfer of an autoimmunological labyrinthitis in the guinea pig; animal model for a sympathetic cochleolabyrinthitis.

Sensorineural hearing loss is a common problem in the otolaryngologist's practice, with autoimmune disease of the inner ear being one possible cause. The restoration of auditory function in some patients following immunosuppressive therapy has created a desire to define and understand this disease better. Because of the lack of a well defined detection method to identify this entity clinically, this study was undertaken in order to provide an animal model for autoimmune disease of the inner ear. Previous studies with guinea pigs have demonstrated that sensitized lymphocytes from the systemic circulation migrate to the labyrinth during an immune response in the inner ear. The aim of this study was to prove the capacity of sensitized lymphocytes to transfer autoimmune inner ear disease, and to describe the resulting morphological and physiological changes. Therefore two groups of sensitized lymphocytes partially labelled with a radioactive marker from inbred guinea pigs with an immune response within the inner ear were injected into the bloodstream of naive recipient animals. Most of the labelled cells were observed in the apical turn of the experimental cochlea, while only few cells were detectable in the control cochleas. In addition, the absence of otoacoustic emissions and the loss of outer hair cells observed by electron microscopy were interpreted as a sign of damage caused by the provoked immunopathologic mechanism. The results are discussed as a possible model for a sympathetic cochleolabyrinthitis.