Hearing Loss May Become Reversible.
mhajicek writes:
Potentially good news for old machinists and over-the-hill heavy metal fans:
"Five years ago, a team of researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) was able to regrow cochlear hair cells in mice for the first time. These hair cells are found in the cochlear region of ears in all mammals. They sense sound vibrations, convert those into brain signals, and eventually allow a person to hear and understand the different sounds around them. The new study from URMC researchers sheds light on the underlying mechanism that allowed the ear hairs to regrow in mice."
"We know from our previous work that expression of an active growth gene, called ERBB2, was able to activate the growth of new hair cells (in mammals), but we didn't fully understand why. This new study tells us how that activation is happening-a significant advance toward the ultimate goal of generating new cochlear hair cells in mammals," said Patricia White, one of the study authors and a neuroscience professor at URMC."
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