The findings by So et al. clearly demonstrated that IL-6 acts as an inducer of acute cochlear damage, considering that a transient up-regulation of IL-6 occurred after expo-sure of animals with cisplatin. Some studies have shown that the inhibition of IL-6 production has a cochlear pro-tective effect. Wakabayashi et al. used anti-IL-6 (MR10-1)antibody to inhibit IL-6 production in mice, identifying a pro-tective effect for noise-induced cochlear injury. Along this same line of investigation, Nakamoto et al. found that the drug geranyl---geranyl---acetone (GGA) stimulates expression of the HSF gene which, in turn, inhibits inflammation in the cochlea, protecting the inner ear.