Congenital hearing impairment associated with peripheral cochlear nerve dysmyelination in glycosylation-deficient muscular dystrophy

PLoS Genet. 2020 May 26;16(5):e1008826. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1008826. eCollection 2020 May.

Abstract

Hearing loss (HL) is one of the most common sensory impairments and etiologically and genetically heterogeneous disorders in humans. Muscular dystrophies (MDs) are neuromuscular disorders characterized by progressive degeneration of skeletal muscle accompanied by non-muscular symptoms. Aberrant glycosylation of α-dystroglycan causes at least eighteen subtypes of MD, now categorized as MD-dystroglycanopathy (MD-DG), with a wide spectrum of non-muscular symptoms. Despite a growing number of MD-DG subtypes and increasing evidence regarding their molecular pathogeneses, no comprehensive study has investigated sensorineural HL (SNHL) in MD-DG. Here, we found that two mouse models of MD-DG, Largemyd/myd and POMGnT1-KO mice, exhibited congenital, non-progressive, and mild-to-moderate SNHL in auditory brainstem response (ABR) accompanied by extended latency of wave I. Profoundly abnormal myelination was found at the peripheral segment of the cochlear nerve, which is rich in the glycosylated α-dystroglycan-laminin complex and demarcated by "the glial dome." In addition, patients with Fukuyama congenital MD, a type of MD-DG, also had latent SNHL with extended latency of wave I in ABR. Collectively, these findings indicate that hearing impairment associated with impaired Schwann cell-mediated myelination at the peripheral segment of the cochlear nerve is a notable symptom of MD-DG.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Animals
  • Child
  • Child, Preschool
  • Cochlear Nerve / metabolism*
  • Disease Models, Animal
  • Dystroglycans / genetics*
  • Female
  • Gene Knockout Techniques
  • Glycosylation
  • Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / etiology
  • Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / genetics
  • Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / metabolism*
  • Humans
  • Infant
  • Male
  • Mice
  • Myelin Basic Protein / metabolism*
  • N-Acetylglucosaminyltransferases / genetics*
  • Walker-Warburg Syndrome / complications
  • Walker-Warburg Syndrome / genetics
  • Walker-Warburg Syndrome / physiopathology*
  • Young Adult

Substances

  • DAG1 protein, human
  • MBP protein, human
  • Myelin Basic Protein
  • Dystroglycans
  • LARGE1 protein, human
  • N-Acetylglucosaminyltransferases

Grants and funding

This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI (#17H04042 and #19K22472 to TU, and #18K09383 to HS), the AMED (JP19ek0109398 to TU), the Uehara Foundation (# 201320273 to TU), the Hyogo Science and Technology Association (#30075 to TU), the Naito Foundation (to TU), and the joint research program of the Biosignal Research Center, Kobe University (#281005, #291004 and #301004 to HS). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.