Effect of Age-Related Hearing Loss on Mice Cochlear Structures Based on Optical Coherence Tomography

With the increasing proportion of the elderly in the population, age-related hearing loss (ARHL) impacts the daily life of seniors and increases society's economic and medical burden. However, the change in the cochlear structures with age is still unknown. The emergency of Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) makes it possible to observe the cochlea in vivo, which can provide high-resolution and high-imaging speed. In this article, we obtained the cochlear OCT image from mice of different ages, acquired the changes in the thickness of cochlear bone and modiolus, and analyzed the signal intensity of the round window and stria vascularis. We found that the thickness of the cochlear bone became thicker while the signal intensity became lower with the growth of age and the degeneration of hearing. These results not only prove the feasibility of OCT which can observe the structural changes of the cochlea but also indicate that age may affect the overall structure of the cochlea, especially stria vascularis, which may deepen our understanding of ARHL.