Figure 9.

Hypothetical scheme of molecular and cellular events in the cochleae of aging Tg-B1 mice leading to accelerated hearing loss. The aberrant activation of AMPK induces the ROS-AMPK-Bcl2 apoptotic pathway in cochleae, resulting in the increased sensory hair cell loss and SGN death. The “scissor” in the figure represents the knockouts of the AMPK pathway. The conjectured downregulation of AMPK could attenuate the apoptotic signaling and ROS accumulation in auditory cells, which accounts for rescue of hearing loss in Tg-B1 mice.