Treatments

Hypothesis Transtympanic steroid treatment will induce changes in ion homeostasis and inflammatory gene expression to decrease middle ear inflammation due to bacterial inoculation. Background Otitis media is common, but treatment options are limited to systemic antibiotic therapy or surgical intervention. Systemic glucocorticoid treatment of mice decreases inflammation and improves fluid clearance. However, transtympanic delivery of glucocorticoids or miner-alocorticoid has not been explored to determine if direct steroid application is beneficial. Methods Balb/c mice received transtympanic inoculation of heat-killedHaemophilus influenzae (H flu), followed by transtympanic treatment with either prednisolone or aldosterone. Mice given PBS instead of steroid and untreated mice were used as controls. Four hours after steroid treatment, middle ears were harvested for mRNA extraction and 24 hours after inoculation middle ears were harvested and examined for measures of inflammation