Estrogen Replacement Reduces Hearing Threshold Shifts and Cochlear Hair Cell Loss After Acoustic Overexposure in Ovariectomized Rats

Objectives. The relationship of estrogen (the primary female sex hormone) with hearing function has been studied in both humans and animals. However, whether estrogen levels affect hearing remains uncertain.Therefore, in this study, we investigated changes in the vulnerability of hearing to acoustic overexposure in ovariectomized female rats. Methods. Eighteen 8-week-old female Sprague-Dawley rats were separated into four groups as follows: sham ovariectomy (OP), OP only, and OP treated with low (10 mu g/kg) or high doses (100 mu g/kg) of estrogen. Rats in the estrogen replacement groups were given two intraperitoneal injections. Hearing thresholds were measured before noise exposure, and at 1 day and 2 weeks after exposure. Results. The hearing thresholds of the sham OP and OP-only groups were not significantly different. However, both estrogen groups showed a lower threshold shift than the OP-only group. Histological immunostaining analyses showed that hair cell loss in the 32 kHz region was more severe in the sham OP group than in the OP-only group. Furthermore, there was little or no hair cell loss in either estrogen replacement group and significantly more hair cell loss in the OP-only group. Conclusion. These results suggest that estrogen replacement may reduce the vulnerability of hearing to noise exposure in menopausal women.