Can intratympanic dexamethasone protect against cisplatin ototoxicity in mice with age-related hearing loss?
These results demonstrate, for the first time, a protective effect of a treatment against an ototoxic agent in the presence of age-related hearing loss. In the presence of age-related hearing loss, the protective effect of i.t. dexamethasone has a frequency gradient, being greatest in the high-frequency region of the cochlea. This latter finding contrasts with our previous report in young mice, in which the protective effect of i.t. dexamethasone was in the low-frequency region of the cochlea.
Levels of tumor necrosis factor-alpha were elevated in the plasma but not detected in the amniotic fluid of normal pregnant patients in the second trimester. These findings suggest involvement of the cellular branch of the immune system and its products, the cytokines, in the normal adaptation of the mother to the fetal allograft, with a possible role in regulating trophoblast growth and invasion.