# Metabolomics and Lipidomics of Noise Induced Hearing Loss

> **NIH NIH R21** · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · 2020 · $195,000

## Abstract

Project Summary
Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) has reached epidemic levels in the USA, affecting an estimated 24.4% of
adults and up to 17% of youths age 12-19. However, there are currently no treatments to prevent or reverse
NIHL, in part because we know remarkably little about how noise damages the inner ear. We hypothesize that
understanding the cellular and molecular mechanism by which noise damages the inner ear will help in creating
new medicines for NIHL. The effects of noise are usually very rapid, e.g., many are evident immediately after a
damaging exposure, suggesting they are mediated by changes in metabolism, which can occur rapidly, as
opposed to resulting from effects on gene expression, which can take hours to manifest. Very little is known
about the impact of noise on the inner ear metabolome. We believe that defining the effects of noise on the inner
ear metabolome will fill a critical gap in knowledge, i.e., how noise damages the inner ear, and could lead to the
identification of targets for future therapies. In preliminary proof-of-concept studies, we found that liquid
chromatography/mass spectroscopy (LC/MS)-based metabolomics profiling is a powerful approach for the
accurate characterization of inner ear metabolites and how these are affected by noise. We used targeted
metabolomics on freshly harvested inner ears to define the relative abundance of 220 metabolites, which
includes coverage of the major pathways in central carbon metabolism. We found that noise exposure induces
acute changes in the inner ear metabolome and that these effects have high statistical significance and
consistency. We also found that the impact of noise on the inner ear metabolome depends on the intensity and
duration of exposure. Pathway analysis of the altered metabolites suggests that noise exposure activates redox
and glutamate pathways. We now propose to develop this methodology further and to explore the effects of
noise on the inner ear in an untargeted approach by working on two specific aims. In Aim 1 we will determine
the impact of noise on the inner ear by performing untargeted metabolomics and lipidomics in mice with different
types of noise exposures. In Aim 2 we will determine the contribution of hair cells and their activity to the noise-
induced metabolic changes by testing the effects of noise on the inner ear metabolome and lipidome of mice
lacking hair cells or capacity for mechano-transduction.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9959392
- **Project number:** 5R21DC017916-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR
- **Principal Investigator:** Gabriel Corfas
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $195,000
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-06-18 → 2022-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9959392

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9959392, Metabolomics and Lipidomics of Noise Induced Hearing Loss (5R21DC017916-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9959392. Licensed CC0.

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