Exposing mice to continuous loud noises changed the zinc levels in their inner ears, while a zinc-trapping compound helped prevent some of the damage
By Christa Lesté-Lasserre
12 February 2024
Exposure to loud noises, such as at a music festival, can worsen our hearing
SERGEI ILNITSKY/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Exposure to loud noises may affect our hearing by disrupting levels of zinc in our inner ears, a study in mice suggests. Therapies that mitigate this could be used to treat or even prevent such damage, for example if taken before a rock concert.
Loud noises can cause cells in the inner ear to die. This has long been known to affect hearing, but the mechanism behind it is less clear.
Thanos Tzounopoulos at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, suspected it might have something to do with free-moving zinc, which plays an important role in the neurological communication of our senses.
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Most of the body’s zinc is attached to proteins, but the rest works as a communication signal between organs, especially the brain, says Tzounopoulos. The highest concentration of free zinc in the body is in the cochlea, the snail-shaped structure in the inner ear that converts vibrations into electrical signals, which are then interpreted as sound.
To learn more, Tzounopoulos and his colleagues tested free zinc levels in young mice that had been genetically modified to produce biological markers that flag the transportation of free zinc throughout the body.