Comparison of Autophagy mRNA Expression between Chronic Otitis Media With and Without Cholesteatoma.

Background and Objectives: Autophagy is known to be associated with pathogen infection. However, the expression of autophagy-related proteins has not been studied in chronic otitis media without cholesteatoma (COM) or with cholesteatoma (CholeOM). This study aimed to determine whether there is a difference between COM and CholeOM in autophagy-related gene mRNA expression. Subjects and Methods: For 47 patients with chronic otitis media, the inflammatory tissues were classified into granulation tissue (COM) or cholesteatoma (CholeOM) according to biopsy results. Results: PI3K mRNA expression (COM vs. CholeOM, mean +/- SD, 0.009 +/- 0.010 vs. 0.003 +/- 0.004; p=0.004) was lower, whereas Beclin-1 mRNA expression (0.089 +/- 0.107 vs. 0.176 +/- 0.163; p=0.034) was higher in the CholeOM group. Expression of PI3K mRNA in the CholeOM group was lower than that in the COM subgroups with presence of bacteria (0.022 +/- 0.019 vs. 0.001 +/- 0.001; p=0.001), otorrhea (0.049 +/- 0.068 vs. 0.003 +/- 0.004; p=0.004), and hearing loss over 40 dB (0.083 +/- 0.130 vs. 0.003 +/- 0.004; p=0.005). Conclusions: The data suggested that different autophagy proteins play important roles in chronic otitis media according to the presence or absence of cholesteatoma.