In terms of mitochondrial changes, rats injected with AOM had increased mitochondrial fission (1.15 fold increase in DRP1, p < 0.05), increased mitochondrial fusion (1.67 fold increase in OPA1, p = 0.07), decreased mitochondrial biogenesis (0.89 fold increase in PGC1-α, p = 0.07) and increased mitochondrial uncoupling (1.75 fold increase in UCP2, p < 0.01) (Figure 4B). Here, UCP2 is linked to infectious otitis media.