Abstract
Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) is the second-most frequent form of sensorineural hearing loss. When exposed to the same noise, some workers develop NIHL while others do not, suggesting that NIHL may be associated with genetic factors. To explore the relationship between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) genes (HSPA1A, HSPA1B and HSPA1L) and susceptibility to NIHL in Han Chinese workers exposed to noise, a case-control association study was carried out with 286 hearing loss cases and 286 matched with gender, age, type of work, and exposure time, drawn from a population of 3790 noise-exposed workers. Four SNPs were selected and genotyped. Subsequently, the effects of the alleles and genotypes of the three HSP70 genes (HSPA1A, HSPA1B and HSPA1L) on NIHL were analyzed by using a conditional logistic regression. A generalized multiple dimensionality reduction (GMDR) was applied to further detect an interaction between the four SNPs. Compared with the combined genotypes CC/TC, carriers of the TT genotype of rs2763979 appeared to show greater susceptibility to NIHL (P = 0.042, adjusted OR = 1.731, 95% CI 1.021–2.935). A significant interaction between rs2763979 and CNE was found (P = 0.029), and a significant association was found between TT of s2763979 and NIHL (P = 0.024, adjusted OR = 5.694, 95%CI 1.256-25.817) in the 96 dB (A)≤CNE<101 dB (A) group. The results suggest that the rs2763979 locus of the HSP70 genes may be associated with susceptibility to NIHL in Chinese individuals, and other HSP70 genes may also be susceptibility genes for NIHL, but the results must be further replicated in additional independent sample sets.
Highlights
Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) is caused by regular exposure to continuous noise or exposure to a single acoustic overstimulation
We investigated whether we could replicate the associations observed between the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) genes (HSPA1A, HSPA1B and HSPA1L) and susceptibility to NIHL in Han Chinese workers exposed to noise
Compared with the combined genotypes CC/TC, carriers of the TT genotype of rs2763979 appeared to be more susceptible to NIHL, and the rs2227956 locus of the HSP70 genes may be associated with susceptibility to NIHL
Summary
Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) is caused by regular exposure to continuous noise or exposure to a single acoustic overstimulation. An increasing number of people are exposed on a daily basis to harmful levels of noise in their work environment. Thirty-five million people are at risk for developing NIHL in Europe alone [2]. Ten million people in the United States have noise-related hearing loss, and the number of workers in China with NIHL has increased 77.8% in the past three years (2010–2012) [3]. NIHL is a complex disease caused by a combination of environmental and genetic factors. Workers who are occupationally exposed to high levels of noise possess high rates of NIHL [5]. Individual factors such as smoking, high blood pressure and cholesterol levels may influence the susceptibility to noise [5,6,7,8,9]
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