Article
Pigs – A New Experimental Model for Hearing Research
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Authors
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Shiming Yang
- PLA General Hospital, Chinese PLA Medical School, Beijing, China
| Published: | April 13, 2017 |
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Outline
Text
An animal model is critical for much clinical research regarding human diseases. In the present study, we summarized the cochlear morphology and electrophysiology of pigs, a type of pig roughly one-fifth the weight and size of a normal pig.
We found that the cochlea of a pig has three and half turns and the average length of the cochlea is 39 mm, 25% longer than a human cochlea. The pig cochlea provides an excellent model for the human cochlea. The threshold and waveforms of the auditory brainstem response of pigs are mature from birth.
We also report that a SOX10 gene point mutation causes autosomal dominantly inherited Mondini inner ear malformation phenotype in pigs, and another model with a novel ENU-induced dominant mutation in the KIT gene causes deafness and hypopigmentation in Bama pigs.
The more interesting data show that a de novo silencer causes elimination of
MITF-M expression and resulting in profound hearing loss in pigs.
These results help to establish pigs as an ideal and unique animal model for extensive using on hearing research.
Supported by: PLA General Hospital, Chinese PLA Medical School
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