Among the upregulated cytokines in the CSOM cochlea, we selected 8 candidates (IL-1β, IL-6, IL-10, TNF-α, CCL-2, CCL-3, CXCL-1 and CXCL-2) that either were increased in previously described acute otitis media models [33, 34], models of noise-induced hearing loss [35, 36] or associated directly with macrophage function. Here, CXCL2 is linked to Acute otitis media.