Mucociliary disease of the middle ear during experimental otitis media with effusion induced by bacterial endotoxin.

Lipopolysaccharide (10 micrograms/mL) derived from Klebsiella pneumoniae was injected into the middle ear of guinea pigs. The animals were killed painlessly on days 1, 3, and 7 after inoculation, and the mucosal samples from two sites within the tympanic cavity, close to the tympanic orifice and distal to the orifice, were examined for ciliary activity and epithelial morphology. At day 1 and day 3 serous effusion was observed and deterioration of ciliary activity and morphologic changes were observed. No effusion was recognized at day 7, when the ciliary activity in the distal mucosa was still diminished and that in the proximal mucosa had recovered to a normal level. Our data have shown that lipopolysaccharide extracted from K pneumoniae can produce otitis media with effusion in laboratory animals, and dysfunction of cilia due to lipopolysaccharide probably is responsible for the accumulation of middle ear effusion. The mucociliary system is indeed an important defense system and failure of such a system, especially in the mucosa close to the tympanic orifice, can cause the buildup of effusions.