Hear This: Scientists Regrow Sound-Sensing Cells
Hear This: Scientists Regrow Sound-Sensing Cells
By Christopher Wanjek | February 21, 2017 02:37pm ET
Scientists have coaxed sound-sensing cells in the ear, called "hair cells," to grow from stem cells. This technique, if perfected with human cells, could help halt or reverse the most common form of hearing loss, according to a new study.
These delicate hair cells can be damaged by excessive noise, ear infections, certain medicines or the natural process of aging. Human hair cells do not naturally regenerate; so as they die, hearing declines.
More than 20 million Americans have significant hearing loss resulting from the death or injury of these sensory hair cells, accounting for about 90 percent of hearing loss in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In the new study, scientists at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology reported that they isolated stem cells from a mouse ear, discovered how to get them to multiply in a laboratory setting, and then converted them into hair cells. Their previous efforts, in 2013, produced only 200 hair cells. With a new technique, however, the research team has increased this number to 11,500 hair cells that were grown from one mouse ear.
More:
http://www.livescience.com/57952-scientists-grow-hair-cells.html?utm_source=notification
