Review: Neural Mechanisms of Tinnitus and Hyperacusis in Acute Drug-Induced Ototoxicity.

Purpose Tinnitus and hyperacusis are debilitating conditions often associated with age-, noise-, and drug-induced hearing loss. Because of their subjective nature, the neural mechanisms that give rise to tinnitus and hyperacusis are poorly understood. Over the past few decades, considerable progress has been made in deciphering the biological bases for these disorders using animal models.

Human chorionic gonadotropin enhances trophoblast-epithelial interaction in an in vitro model of human implantation.

Embryo implantation, which is an absolute requirement for reproduction, starts with blastocyst apposition to the uterine endometrium, followed by attachment to the endometrial surface epithelium. Recent clinical studies reported an increase in implantation and pregnancy rates among women receiving intrauterine human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) prior to embryo transfer suggesting that, at least in some cases, female infertility is a result of inadequate secretion of hCG. In this study, we characterized the effect of hCG on trophoblast-epithelial interaction by further developing our recently described in vitro model of implantation.