α1A-Adrenergic receptors mediate vasoconstriction of the isolated spiral modiolar artery in vitro

Preventing Internal Auditory Artery Vasospasm Using Topical Papaverine: An Animal Study

“…There is evidence that CBF is at least partially under sympathetic nervous system control. Histochemical techniques showing sympathetic fibers surrounding cochlear arteries (25)(26)(27), as well as pharmacological studies applying adrenergic receptor antagonists to these vessels (28,29), suggest that sympathetic innervation regulates the vascular tone of the cochlea. Sympathetic innervation of the cochlear arteries appears to come from the stellate ganglia bilaterally and the superior cervical ganglion ipsilaterally.…”

Psychosocial and physiological correlates of self-reported hearing problems in male and female musicians in symphony orchestras

“…The major source of autonomic innervation to the inner ear is from the superior cervical ganglion and the stellate ganglia and these projections are exclusively ipsilateral and relatively abundant (Brown, 1987a,b;Spoendlin, 1981). Autonomic innervation of the cochlea has been found to regulate cochlear blood flow by activating adrenergic α-receptors and afferent firing of the eighth nerve due to the close proximity of sympathetic fibers to the afferent nerve endings (Gruber et al, 1998;Laurikainen et al, 1994;Ohlsen et al, 1991;Spoendlin and Lichtensteiger, 1966). Different forms of emotional or physical stress have been found to alter auditory threshold sensitivity as well as plasma and cochlear concentrations of norepinephrine and corticosterone (Muchnik et al, 1980;.…”

Molecular and pharmacological characteristics of the gerbil α1a-adrenergic receptor

“…Primer designs were based on those previously described (Scofield et al, 1995) and the third cytoplasmic loop of the gerbil α 1a -adrenergic receptor (Gruber et al, 1998). In addition, a degenerative primer was used to amplify the 5′ region of the gerbil α 1a -adrenergic receptor, and a 3′ RACE (FirstChoice RLM-RACE Kit, Ambion, Austin, TX) with gerbil-specific primers from regions already sequenced was used to obtain the C-terminal sequence.…”

“…The spiral modiolar artery is innervated by norepinephrine-containing sympathetic nerves (Carlisle et al, 1990), and vasoconstriction of the spiral modiolar artery is mediated by α 1 -adrenergic receptors (Gruber, 1998). In addition, α 1 -adrenergic receptors have been shown to regulate cochlear blood flow (Ohlsen et al, 1991).…”

“…Previously, we reported that reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction identified mRNA for only the α 1A -adrenergic receptor subtype in gerbil spiral modiolar arteries (SMA). In addition, functional characterization of the α 1 -subtype on the SMA showed that 5-methylurapidil blocked norepinephrine-induced contraction with relative high affinity, indicating the α 1A -adrenergic receptor subtype regulates contraction of the SMA (Gruber et al, 1998). …”