Sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) can happen when the hair cells and neurons in the cochlea are damaged by loud noise, infection, aging, or other reasons. Each person with SNHL has a unique pattern of cochlear cell damage that causes the problem, although doctors and researchers currently have no way to assess it with the detail needed for personalized treatments. To better understand the causes and potential treatments for SNHL, we need clinical imaging tools that can see and provide details about the health, integrity, and function of a person’s cochlear cells. But, because the cochlea is tiny, hidden deep in bone, and fragile, the usual types of clinical imaging, like MRI or CT scans, cannot capture this information.

The labs of Dr. Konstantina Stankovic and Dr. Guillermo Tearney have previously used a technique called micro-optical coherence tomography (μOCT) for imaging inner ear specimens of animals and humans, which provides striking detail of the cells’ microscopic structure. Now, they’ve improved this technology to a new version called dynamic μOCT (DμOCT) which provides new insights on the cells’ health. This enhanced version can capture detailed, live images of cell activity by looking at the movement inside cells. Using DμOCT, the researchers could see the fine details of living cells in the cochlea of mice, including inner and outer hair cells, neurites, and supporting cells. The technology also showed changes in cell metabolism when the cells were damaged by a toxic substance, which would be crucial for understanding how they may respond to environmental toxins and noise, or to therapies directed at cell repair or replacement. This imaging method is also extremely fast—even with just a few imaging frames, DμOCT provided enough detail to see individual cells and their activity.

These advancements suggest that DμOCT could be developed into a tool to diagnose SNHL in humans by examining both the structure and metabolism of cochlear cells. This information can help to identify which cochlear cells are healthy, unhealthy, or missing altogether and then direct the choice of the best therapy for a patient’s specific type of SNHL.”