New hair cell culturing method for hearing loss
27 September 2007
In a breakthrough that is likely to accelerate research designed to find cures for hearing loss, tinnitus, and balance problems, scientists have perfected a technique that provides a reliable new source of cells critical to understanding certain inner ear disorders.
The cells, known as hair cells, are the essential sound and balance detectors in the inner ear. Damage to these cells is a key factor in loss of hearing and balance and, while birds, fishes, and amphibians can quickly regrow damaged hair cells, humans cannot. Until now, scientists seeking clues to this problem have been hampered by the difficult procedures required to gather these cells for their research.
In the September edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), US researchers Zhengqing Hu and Jeffrey Corwin, both of the University of Virginia School of Medicine, describe a new technique for isolating and growing cells from the inner ears of chicken embryos. The scientists achieved these results by inducing avian cells to differentiate into hair cells. They were able to freeze and thaw the cultured cells, then grow new cells from the thawed cultures - a discovery that will make hair cells accessible to more researchers. The study of hair cells is crucial to understanding hearing loss because we are born with a limited number of these sound detectors in each ear, which can be easily damaged by age, certain illnesses, loud noises, and adverse reactions to medications.
"Until now, scientists working to understand many inner ear disorders had to resort to difficult micro-dissections to gather even small numbers of these cells, which limited the types of research that could be pursued and slowed the pace of discoveries," says Corwin. The availability of vials of frozen cells that can be induced to form hair cells should remove a significant barrier to progress toward the development of treatments for the many patients who suffer from hearing loss and balance problems.
