病毒感染后嗅觉障碍是最常见的嗅觉障碍之一。其机制不明确，而且无有效治疗方法，嗅觉预后不好。我们前期的临床研究发现使用糖皮质激素能有效治疗病毒感染后嗅觉障碍。糖皮质激素治疗病毒感染后嗅觉障碍的机制不明了。我们提出如下假说：糖皮质激素通过抑制病毒感染导致的神经炎症发挥治疗作用。本研究通过建立病毒感染后嗅觉障碍小鼠动物模型，行甲泼尼松龙治疗，观察治疗后不同节点的嗅觉功能（埋藏食物小球试验）、嗅神经病理（嗅干细胞、嗅上皮、嗅球和梨状皮质），炎症相关酶（iNOS、iCOX-2和cPLA2）, 炎症相关细胞因子(IL-1β、TNF-α)，重要的炎症信号通道p38MAPK和凋亡相关通道Bax/Bcl-2的表达。一旦我们的假说得到验证，将对阐明该病的发病机制和建立新的治疗方法起到巨大的推动作用。

Postviral olfactory dysfunction (PVOD) is one of the most common olfactory dysfunction. The pathophysiologic mechanism is not clear, and there is no effective treatment with poor outcome of olfactory function. Our previous clinical studies have found the efficacy of glucocorticoids (GC) in the treatment of patients with PVOD. The mechanism of GC for the treatment of PVOD is unknown. We propose the following hypothesis: GC plays a key role in the treatment of PVOD by inhibiting the neuroinflammation of the olfactory nerve system and boosting the vitality of olfactory stem cells. Present study will establish mice animal model of PVOD, and methylprednisolone will be administered. The measurements will be achieved including behavior olfactory function testing (buried food pellet test), olfactory nerve pathology (olfactory stem cells, olfactory epithelium, olfactory bulb and piriform cortex), inflammation related enzymes (iNOS, iCOX-2 and cPLA2), inflammation related cytokines (IL-1 beta and TNF alpha), an important inflammatory signal pathway of p38MAPK and apoptosis related channel of Bax/Bcl-2 expression after treatment at different days (1D, 3D, 1W, 2W, 4W, 8W, 12W).Once our hypothesis has been verified，It will be helpful to clarify the pathogenesis of PVOD as well as to establish a novel therapeutic method in the treatment of PVOD.