RATIONALE: Induction of peripheral tolerance by oral administration of antigen has been applied to the treatment of autoimmune disease such as rheumatoid arthritis . Oral tolerance to low dose β-tubulin is an effective antigen- specific method to suppress experimental autoimmune hearing loss. We investigated the changes of cytokine level in β-tubulin induced autoimmune hearing loss in mice : INF-r,IL-2 ,IL-6, IL-10 and TGF- β.METHODS: 20 mice were divided into 4 groups at random, one group of mice were fed with PBS as control, and the other 3 group were fed with 10μg,20 μg or 30 μg of tubulin respectively, then they were immunized by β-tubulin. Before and after immunization , the hearing thresholds were measured by ABR and DPOAE.RESULTS: The PBS- fed mice were found to have severe hearing loss, but the hearing of the 20 μg and 30 μg β-tubulin fed mice were protected effectively and the threshold were much better than that of the PBS-fed mice.The sera collected from each mouse at 3,5and 7 weeks after primary immunization were used to cytokine analysis by ELISA. And spleen cells are cultured and the histology of temporal bones are being examined.CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that protection from autoimmune hearing loss by oral administration of minute amounts of β-tubulin are observed. Therefore, this oral tolerance can be used to treat the autoimmune hearing loss in human patients. RATIONALE: Induction of peripheral tolerance by oral administration of antigen has been applied to the treatment of autoimmune disease such as rheumatoid arthritis . Oral tolerance to low dose β-tubulin is an effective antigen- specific method to suppress experimental autoimmune hearing loss. We investigated the changes of cytokine level in β-tubulin induced autoimmune hearing loss in mice : INF-r,IL-2 ,IL-6, IL-10 and TGF- β. METHODS: 20 mice were divided into 4 groups at random, one group of mice were fed with PBS as control, and the other 3 group were fed with 10μg,20 μg or 30 μg of tubulin respectively, then they were immunized by β-tubulin. Before and after immunization , the hearing thresholds were measured by ABR and DPOAE. RESULTS: The PBS- fed mice were found to have severe hearing loss, but the hearing of the 20 μg and 30 μg β-tubulin fed mice were protected effectively and the threshold were much better than that of the PBS-fed mice.The sera collected from each mouse at 3,5and 7 weeks after primary immunization were used to cytokine analysis by ELISA. And spleen cells are cultured and the histology of temporal bones are being examined. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that protection from autoimmune hearing loss by oral administration of minute amounts of β-tubulin are observed. Therefore, this oral tolerance can be used to treat the autoimmune hearing loss in human patients.