• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.116-124
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• 2018

Lysozyme is known as a key substance of the innate immunity and have antibacterial effect in the mucosal tissues, especially middle ear. Aquaporin (AQP) functions as water movement in the tissue and has been expected to be participated in the inflammatory responses. In the present study, we investigated to reveal association of lysozymes and AQPs in otitis media. The gene expression of lysozyme genes, homo sapiens lysozyme (hLYZ), homo sapiens lysozyme M (hLYZ M), and homo sapiens lysozyme G like-2 (hLYGH), and AQP genes (AQP 0 - AQP 12) were measured from postauricular skin, mastoid mucosa, inflamed mastoid mucosa, and middle ear mucosa. The hLYZ, hLYZ M and hLYGH gene were expressed in mastoid mucosa, inflamed mastoid mucosa, middle ear mucosa. Of AQP genes, all AQP gene except AQP 3 gene were expressed in the tissue of middle ear. Among them, AQP 4, AQP 8, AQP 9, AQP 10, AQP 11 and AQP 12 were highly expressed in the inflamed mastoid mucosa and normal mastoid mucosa (P<0.001). Interestingly, expression levels of AQP 4, AQP 9, and AQP 12 gene were significantly higher in the inflamed mastoid mucosa compared to normal middle ear mucosa (P<0.05). These results suggest that lysozyme and AQPs could be associated with inflammatory response in the middle ear.