Genetic and pharmacological intervention for treatment/prevention of hearing loss
from the Journal of Communication Disorders
Twenty years ago it was first demonstrated that birds could regenerate their cochlear hair cells following noise damage or aminoglycoside treatment. An understanding of how this structural and functional regeneration occurred might lead to the development of therapies for treatment of sensorineural hearing loss in humans. Recent experiments have demonstrated that noise exposure and aminoglycoside treatment lead to apoptosis of the hair cells. In birds, this programmed cell death induces the adjacent supporting cells to undergo regeneration to replace the lost hair cells. Although hair cells in the mammalian cochlea undergo apoptosis in response to noise damage and ototoxic drug treatment, the supporting cells do not possess the ability to undergo regeneration. However, current experiments on genetic manipulation, gene therapy, and stem cell transplantation suggest that regeneration in the mammalian cochlea may eventually be possible and may 1 day provide a therapeutic tool for hearing loss in humans.
