Dexamethasone treatment of naïve organ of Corti explants alters the expression pattern of apoptosis-related genes.

Dexamethasone treatment of organ of Corti explants challenged with an ototoxic level of an inflammatory cytokine modulates NFkappaB signaling and the expression levels of both pro-and anti-apoptosis-related genes. It is not known if naïve organ of Corti explants will respond in a similar manner to treatment with a corticosteroid. This study examines the response of naïve organ of Corti explants to treatment with dexamethasone.Three-day-old rat organ of Corti explants were cultured for 1, 2, or 4 days. Four-day in vitro cultures were fixed, stained with FITC-phalloidin and hair cells were counted. ELISA was performed on 2-day cultures to determine the levels of phosphorylated nuclear factor …