Cochlear Implant Performance in patients with TMPRSS3 mutations

Introduction:

Little is known about the influence of genetic factors on the functional outcome after cochlear implantation.

Most descriptions are limited to case reports. High-throughput sequencing allows the parallel genetic diagnosis of almost all known genes for deafness.

Methods:

In total, more than 120 patients with severe to profound hearing loss or deafness and cochlear implantation were evaluated using high-throughput sequencing. The genetic findings were correlated with the audiologically obtained functional outcome after cochlear implantation.

Results:

The most commonly mutated genes include GJB2, MYO15A, MYO7A, SLC26A4, CDH23, and MYH14. The functional results of cochlear implantation corresponds the known standard of therapy (60 – 70% in the Freiburg word test). For individual genes, in particular the TMPRSS3 gene (n = 5), the results were far below average. For the TMPRSS3 gene, the limited functional results correlate with the expression of TMPRSS3 in the human spiral ganglia.

Conclusions:

Animal experiments have shown that in addition to the sensory cells, the spiral ganglia also degenerate in mutations in the TMPRSS3 gene. The limited functional results in TMPRSS3 mutations can be explained by a loss of spiral ganglia.

Publication History

Publication Date:
18 April 2018 (online)