Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) have conducted a study that has determined the role that a critical protein plays in the development of hair cells. These hair cells are vital for hearing. Some of these cells amplify sounds that come into the ear, and others transform sound waves into electrical signals that travel to the brain. Ronna Hertzano, MD, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery at UMSOM and Maggie Matern, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University, demonstrated that the protein, called GFI1, may be critical for determining whether an embryonic hair cell matures into a functional adult hair cell or becomes a different cell that functions more like a nerve cell or neuron.
[...] Hearing relies on the proper functioning of specialized cells within the inner ear called hair cells. When the hair cells do not develop properly or are damaged by environmental stresses like loud noise, it results in a loss of hearing function.
In the United States, the prevalence of hearing loss doubles with every 10-year increase in age, affecting about half of all adults in their 70s and about 80 percent of those who are over age 85. Researchers have been focusing on describing the developmental steps that lead to a functional hair cell, in order to potentially generate new hair cells when old ones are damaged.
To conduct her latest study, Dr. Hertzano and her team utilized cutting-edge methods to study gene expression in the hair cells of genetically modified newborn mice that did not produce GFI1. They demonstrated that, in the absence of this vital protein, embryonic hair cells failed to progress in their development to become fully functional adult cells. In fact, the genes expressed by these cells indicated that they were likely to develop into neuron-like cells.
Journal Reference:
Maggie S. Matern, Beatrice Milon, Erika L. Lipford, et al. GFI1 functions to repress neuronal gene expression in the developing inner ear hair cells [$], Development (DOI: 10.1242/dev.186015)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 01 2021, @04:39AM
For some reason, I almost always got my fingers in my ears.
(Score: 2, Informative) by hemocyanin on Thursday April 01 2021, @05:52AM
Chickens regrow damaged ear hair cells: https://www.audubon.org/news/how-chickens-could-inspire-new-treatments-deafness [audubon.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 01 2021, @06:08AM
Remind me to never go down on my wife again.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday April 01 2021, @03:58PM (1 child)
From birth I've had an uneven hearing loss due to some sort of problem with the development of these exact hair cells under discussion. It's anywhere from -30dB to -70dB, with the big valley in the 1-4KHz range right where all the consonants are. If it's possible to grow a normal set of hair cells and reverse this, I'd love to get that kind of treatment. This is like living with the aural equivalent of horrible JPG artifacting and the contrast turned down a good 70%.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 01 2021, @11:16PM
I'm with you. Whenever I hear about research into repairing hair cells to restore normal hearing, I always pay attention.
For me, it was chemotherapy that murdered these cells*, and led to the most annoying and ever present tinnitus, as well as hearing loss especially in the ranges used by male speakers.
* But, happy to still be on this side of the grass.