Auditory neuropathy in streptozotocin-induced diabetic mouse.

An investigation of the mechanism of damage to the peripheral nervous system and central nervous system in diabetes mellitus (DM) is highly important in current neurological research. Auditory neuropathy is a hearing disorder in which the auditory brainstem evoked potential is absent or severely abnormal. This study investigated auditory neuropathy caused by streptozotocin in mouse model. In order to assess diabetic auditory neuropathy, we evaluated auditory brainstem response (ABR) for the evaluation of sensorineural function in peripheral auditory nerve. Auditory middle latency response (AMLR) was employed to assess the middle response in the midbrain. STZ groups significantly increased the absolute latencies IV and the interpeak latencies I-III and I-IV of ABR compared with STZ 0 group. Pa latency of AMLR also significantly increased in proportion to STZ dosage. Taken together, our results demonstrate that STZ-induced DM may impair the auditory pathway from peripheral auditory nerve to midbrain in the mouse model. We suggest that the STZ-induced diabetic mouse model may be useful for the evaluation of auditory pathway impairment by using ABR and AMLR tests.