ANÁLISE DO PERFIL GENÔMICO DA PERDA AUDITIVA SENSORIONEURAL NÃO SINDRÔMICA

Abstract

Hearing loss is the most common sensory deficit in humans, which causes a negative impact in the structure of language and oral communication skills. One out of every thousand children are born deaf or become deaf to varying degrees before language is acquired, thus developing a pre-lingual deafness. Knowing the molecular genetic basis of the auditory system would provide early intervention, development of new therapies, genetic counseling and more productive social integration of individuals with hearing loss. Genomic studies would produce important information to support the development of technical, technological, and scientific tools that would help the regional community to provide better health care to the deaf . Moreover, genomic studies would ensure a molecular epidemiological analysis that portrays the reality of better health disorders in the population of Goiás. The current study was designed to identify chromosome regions containing genomic imbalances potentially associated with the nonsyndromic sensorineural hearing loss using molecular cytogenetics. Peripheral blood samples were obtained from 31 patients from the Clinical School of Speech Pathology, Pontifical Catholic University of Goiás, with sensorioneural hearing loss of unknown etiology, with or without family history and without a concurrent syndrome. All subjects were submitted to audiological evaluation, followed by short-term cultures of peripheral blood T lymphocytes in order to obtain metaphase chromosomes for karyotyping. Chromosomal imbalances was assessed by CGH. In the studied group, 45.2% were male and 54.8% female, mean age was 19.5 years, while 54.8% reported family history of deafness, 9% reported lack of familial history, and 3.2% could not say. All participants had sensorioneural hearing loss varying from mild to severe degrees, of which 87.1% exhibited prelingual hearing loss and 12.9% post-lingual. The multifactorial nature of hearing loss was certainly evident. However, chromosomal imbalances played an important role in the genesis and development of the disorder. Thus, a better understanding of the roles of genetic factors in the mechanisms related to the processes of cell differentiation, contributes to better understand the genesis of health problems, especially in the field of hearing loss.1 Referencial Teórico