Researchers at St Jude Children’s Research Hospital may be close to discovering a way to reverse hearing loss.
In a study released on April 11, St. Jude announced that they had used genetic manipulation to regrow auditory hair cells in adult mice, giving hope that it might be possible to use the same treatment on humans one day.
Losing auditory hair cells is the leading cause of hearing loss in adults all over the world. You can lose these cells with prolonged exposure to loud noises, illness and due to several other factors. Currently, the hair cells don’t grow back once they are lost, leading to the need for hearing aids or cochlear implants.
To develop the new therapy, the researchers at St. Jude looked at fish and chicken, who can regenerate auditory hair cells. By manipulating the same genes in the mice that allow for regeneration in the other aforementioned species, researchers were able to grow new cells similar to the auditory hair cells.
While this breakthrough comes as some good news to hearing loss researchers, St. Jude, as well as other research institutions, are still looking to replicate other factors to help in the regeneration of auditory hair cells. There are still many other genes and proteins that researchers have recognized might help hearing loss, but not yet figured out how to make them work for the human body.
If you feel you are suffering from any hearing loss, don’t hesitate to call Hearing Revolution at (877) 426-0687 or visit hearingrevolution.com.