FVB/NJ Mice Demonstrate a Youthful Sensitivity to Noise-Induced Hearing Loss and Provide a Useful Genetic Model for the Study of Neural Hearing Loss

Abstract

The hybrid mouse diversity panel (HMDP), a panel of 100 strains, has been employed in genome wide association studies (GWAS) to study complex traits in mice. Hearing is a complex trait and the CBA/CaJ mouse strain is a widely used model for age-related hearing impairment (ARHI) and noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). The youthful sensitivity to noise and limited age-related hearing loss of the CBA/CaJ strain led us to attempt the identification of additional strains segregating a similar phenotype for our panel. FVB/NJ is part of the HMDP and has been previously described as having a similar ARHI phenotype to CBA/CaJ. For these reasons, we have studied the FVB/NJ mouse for ARHI and NIHL phenotypes in the hopes of incorporating its phenotype into HMDP studies. We demonstrate that FVB/NJ exhibits ARHI at an earlier age than CBA/CaJ and young FVB/NJ mice are vulnerable to NIHL up to 10-12 weeks. This suggests that FVB/NJ may be used as an additional genetic model for neural forms of progressive hearing loss and for the study of youthful sensitivity to noise.