Available online 3 June 2023, 101278

Peroxynitrite could induce Hair Cells (HCs) damage in vitro on mouse cochlear.

Peroxynitrite eventuated HCs loss in a basal-apical gradient manner.

Outer HCs were more vulnerable to peroxynitrite injury than inner HCs.

Peroxynitrite could cause mitochondria oxidative damage to HCs.

Low concentrations of Wnt3a have a protective effect on the oxidative damage of HCs.

To investigate the effect of peroxynitrite on the cultured cochlear hair cells of C57BL/6 P3 mice in vitro as well as the role of Wnt3a, as an activator of the canonical Wnt signaling pathway, underlying the action of such an oxidative stress.

The in vitro primary cultured cochlear hair cells were subjected to l00 μM peroxynitrite and l00 μM peroxynitrite +25 ng/mL Wnt3a for 24 h, the cell survival and morphological changes were examined by immunofluorescence and transmission electron microscopy.

The number of surviving hair cells was significantly reduced in the 100 μM peroxynitrite group, while it was significantly higher in the Wnt3a + peroxynitrite treated group compared with the peroxynitrite treated group. The transmission electron microscopy showed that exposure to peroxynitrite induced a dramatic decrease in the number of mitochondria and severely disrupted mitochondrial ultrastructure, while Wnt3a clearly diminished the disruption of mitochondrial structure and preserved a higher number of mitochondria.

These results indicated that peroxynitrite could cause oxidative damage to the cochlear hair cells, and low concentrations of Wnt3a has a protective effect against oxidative damage.

Level 2.

Cochlear hair cells

Wnt3a

Hearing loss

Peroxynitrite

© 2023 Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. on behalf of Associação Brasileira de Otorrinolaringologia e Cirurgia Cérvico-Facial.