Sure, some of us don’t hear because we choose not to listen…but excluding that group, there is still a portion of the population that can’t hear due to legitimate medical reasons. In some cases, the problem arises from defective auditory nerve cells. These cells are supposed to connect signals (i.e. sounds) from the inner ear to the brain. Malfunctioning nerve cells are like a broken telephone line – you’re not going to hear what your best friend is yelling about on the other end, no matter how loud she is.
In a recent scientific first, researchers in the U.K. used human stem cells to grow replacement auditory nerve cells (think of them as substitute telephone lines grown in a petri dish). Surprisingly, that wasn’t the impressive part. The researchers then injected these new nerve cells into the inner ear of deaf gerbils. After ten weeks, the animals recovered an average of 46% of their hearing.
Yup, the transplanted cells were able to connect the gerbils’ inner ear cells to their brains. This is the first time that stem cells have been shown to restore hearing. Since there are no current treatments for patients with damaged auditory nerve cells, this is especially exciting. What’s that? It looks like we’ll have to find new excuses for why we’re not listening…
