Morphological and functional preservation of the outer hair cells from noise trauma by sound conditioning.

Guinea pigs were sound conditioned to a low-level, long-term pure tone stimulus (1 kHz, 81 dB SPL, 24 days) before exposure to a traumatic noise (1 kHz, 105 dB SPL, 72 h). Auditory brainstem response thresholds and distortion product otoacoustic emissions were obtained at selected frequencies before sound conditioning and at day 1, 5, 10, and 15 during sound conditioning as well as on the final 24th day. Auditory brainstem responses at 1 and 2 kHz were not affected at any time during sound conditioning. The amplitude of the distortion product otoacoustic emission showed minor alterations (below 10 dB) at selected frequencies only during the initial stages (day 1, 5, and 10) of sound conditioning in some, but not all the animals. Distortion product amplitudes were similar to control values on the 15th and 24th day of conditioning. Surface preparations of the organ of Corti did not reveal any significant hair cell loss induced by sound conditioning. The effect of a traumatic exposure (1 kHz, 105 dB SPL, 72 h) on a control group and a sound conditioned group was determined. The distortion product otoacoustic emission amplitude measured 4 weeks after the cessation of the traumatic exposure revealed significant differences. The amplitude of the distortion product otoacoustic emission for the control group was depressed at all tested frequencies and at lower frequencies (2.8, 2.1, and 1.75 kHz) the emissions did not show an increase in response to increases in intensity, of the primaries. The sound conditioned group showed increases in distortion product amplitude with increases in the intensity of the primaries for all tested frequencies and statistically significant reductions from the pre-exposure values were not found. Surface preparations from the control group indicated that the traumatic noise exposure affected nearly 100% of the outer hair cells around the 14 mm distance from the round window. The sound conditioned group showed a significantly less (50%) outer hair cell loss than the control group. The sound conditioned group illustrated an altered pattern of damage after subsequent noise trauma. There were two distinct regions of outer hair cell loss, one being around the 16 mm distance and the other around the 12 mm distance from the round window. These results imply that the intrinsic properties of the outer hair cells and/or the organ of Corti have been altered by sound conditioning.