Xiaorui Shi, M.D.

  • Professor of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, School of Medicine

Biography

Summary of current research Research Interests

Normal hearing requires the blood supply to the cochlea is well-regulated and the blood-labyrinth barrier tightly-controlled. The structural integrity of the microvasculature is critical to its function in maintaining the supply of oxygen, nutrients, and hormones to our ears, and for removing toxins and metabolic waste products. Insufficient blood supply to the ear is among the primary causes of age-related and noise-induced hearing loss, and is implicated in autoimmune inner ear disease and several genetically-linked hearing diseases as well. The aim of my lab is to obtain a better understanding of the mechanisms by which blood flow to the ear is regulated, blood-labyrinth barrier is controlled, and compromised vasculature is restored after damage. Ultimately, our goal is to develop new treatments, ameliorate damage, and improve the quality of life for people who suffer from vascular dysfunction related hearing loss.

Significant Discoveries and Advances A fibrocyte-pericyte coupling controls regional cochlear blood flow Perivascular resident macrophages in the cochlear blood-labyrinth barrier renew via migration of bone-marrow-derived cells  Pericyte plasticity in response to loud-sound microvessel damage Bone-marrow cells are recruited to the acoustically damaged blood-labyrinth barrier Mass spectroscopy shows a high percentage of proteins in purified mouse strial capillaries are transporters Developed a novel "sandwich-dissociation" method for isolation of strial capillaries and a "mini-chip" method for isolation and primary culture of strial blood-labyrinth-barrier component cells″ Breakdown of the strial BLB, a common feature in a wide range of pathological conditions (cochlear inflammation, loud sound trauma, and ageing), can be remodeled by stem cells 

Education and training

  • Degrees

    • M.D., 1987, Henan Medical College
    • M.S., 1994, Shanghai Second Medial University
    • Ph.D., 1997, Henan Medical College

Areas of interest

  • Regulation of cochlear blood flow
  • Cellular mechanisms controlling the integrity of the blood-labyrinth-barrier
  • Vascular pathology in aging, loud sound, and inflammatory induced damage to the ear
  • Vascular remodeling and angiogenesis after damage

Additional information

Publications

Selected publications

  • Said, M.B., Grati, M.h., Ishimoto, T., Zou, B., Chakchouk, I., Ma, Q., Yao, Q. Hammami, B. Yan, D., Mittal, R., Nakamichi, N., Ghorel, A., Neng, L., Tekin, M., Shi, X., Kato, Y., Masmoudi, S., Lu, Z., Hmani, M. and Liu, X. (2016). A mutation in SLC22A4 encoding an organic cation transporter expressed in the cochlea strial endothelium causes human recessive non-syndromic hearing loss DFNB60. Hum Genet 135(5): 513-524.
  • Shi, X. (2016). Pathophysiology of the cochlear intrastrial fluid-blood barrier (review). Hear Res, doi:10.1016/j.heares.2016.01.010.
  • Zhang, J., Chen, S., Hou, Z., Cai, J., Dong, M., & Shi, X. (2015). Lipopolysaccharide-induced middle ear inflammation disrupts the cochlear intra-strial fluid–blood barrier through down-regulation of tight junction proteins. PLoS One, 10(3), e0122572.
  • Neng, L., Zhang, J., Yang, J., Zhang, F., Lopez, I. A., Dong, M. & Shi, X. (2015). Structural changes in thestrial blood–labyrinth barrier of aged C57BL/6 mice. Cell Tissue Res, 361(3), 685-696.
  • Wilson, T., Omelchenko, I., Foster, S., Zhang, Y., Shi, X. & Nuttall, A. L. (2014). JAK2/STAT3 inhibition attenuates noise-induced hearing loss. PLoS One, 9(10), e108276.
  • Shi, X., Zhang, F., Urdang, Z., Dai, M., Neng, L., Zhang, J., Chen, S., Ramamoorthy, S. & Nuttall, A. L. (2014). Thin and open vessel windows for intra-vital fluorescence imaging of murine cochlear blood flow. Hear Res, 313, 38-46.
  • Zhang, F., Dai, M., Neng, L., Zhang, J. H., Zhi, Z., Fridberger, A. & Shi, X. (2013). Perivascular macrophage-like melanocyte responsiveness to acoustic trauma—a salient feature of strial barrier associated hearing loss. FASEB J, 27(9), 3730-3740
  • Zhang, F., Zhang, J., Neng, L., & Shi, X. (2013). Characterization and inflammatory response of perivascular-resident macrophage-like melanocytes in the vestibular system. J Assoc Res Otolaryngol, 14(5), 635-643.
  • Neng, L., Zhang, W., Hassan, A., Zemla, M., Kachelmeier, A., Fridberger, A., Auer, M. & Shi, X. (2013). Isolation and culture of endothelial cells, pericytes and perivascular resident macrophage-like melanocytes from the young mouse ear. Nat Prot, 8(4), 709-720
  • Zhang, W., Dai, M., Fridberger, A., Hassan, A., DeGagne, J., Neng, L., Zhang, F., He, W., Ren, T., Trune, D. Auer, M. & Shi, X.R. (2012). Perivascular-resident macrophage-like melanocytes in the inner ear are essential for the integrity of the intrastrial fluid–blood barrier. Proc Nat'l Acad Sci U S A, 109(26), 10388-10393.

Publications