Sensory hair cells regenerated, hearing restored in mammal ear

[powersam]

In the Jan. 10 issue of Neuron, Massachusetts Eye and Ear and Harvard Medical School researchers demonstrate for the first time that hair cells can be regenerated in an adult mammalian ear by using a drug to stimulate resident cells to become new hair cells, resulting in partial recovery of hearing in mouse ears damaged by noise trauma. This finding holds great potential for future therapeutic application that may someday reverse deafness in humans. "Hair cells are the primary receptor cells for sound and are responsible for the sense of hearing," explains senior author, Dr. Albert Edge, of Harvard Medical School and Mass. Eye and Ear. "We show that hair cells can be generated in a damaged cochlea and that hair cell replacement leads to an improvement in hearing." In the experiment, the researchers applied a drug to the cochlea of deaf mice. The drug had been selected for its ability to generate hair cells when added to stem cells isolated from the ear. It acted by inhibiting an enzyme called gamma-secretase that activates a number of cellular pathways. The drug applied to the cochlea inhibited a signal generated by a protein called Notch on the surface of cells that surround hair cells. These supporting cells turned into new hair cells upon treatment with the drug. Replacing hair cells improved hearing in the mice, and the improved hearing could be traced to the areas in which supporting cells had become new hair cells. "The missing hair cells had been replaced by new hair cells after the drug treatment, and analysis of their location allowed us to correlate the improvement in hearing to the areas where the hair cells were replaced," Dr. Edge said.

Read more at: http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-sensory-hair-cells-regenerated-mammal.html#jCp

 

[blondguy]

What drug were they using? Was there any discussion or mention of use in male pattern baldness?

You would think any relation to hair regrowth would cause researchers to pounce on it and redirect their goals. As discovering ANY new drug that helped male pattern baldness would bring far more $$ then anything else they are researching.

 

[powersam]

The similarities of the two types of hair cells are beyond me, but them being able to tell a cell to turn into a hair follicle has to have some sort of application with regards to male pattern baldness (i hope). Interesting stuff.

The article says which drugs they were using, no specific mention of male pattern baldness. Researchers are often quite blinkered with regards to the applications of their research.

 

[abcdefg]

Treatments for male pattern baldness are on their way they have more progress in the last 10 years then in the previous 100. Its always cool to hear stuff like this when they figure out something that maybe help a lot of people someday, but we have to be realistic with time this is not going to be happening any time soon for most people. Its a cool future avenue to explore

 

[Armando Jose]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3202415/pdf/10162_2002_Article_28.pdf

The original article

Interesting but in my opinion hair scalp regeneration is more complexe that hair inside the ear, although the traslation of a wave "word" in a neuron signal is very important issue. Antes fue la Palabra.