Such regulations focus on preventing the destruction of
hair cells in the inner ear, which causes a jump in someone's hearing threshold.
Some childhood cancer survivors are also at risk because
of hair cells damage due to certain chemotherapy agents.
The changes in function were temporary, and there was no evidence of either a temporary or a permanent change in neural function or the function of
sensory hair cells in the inner ear.
This can occur if a person's inner -
ear hair cells are destroyed by exposure to loud noise, to some antibiotic drugs, or simply through old age.
The scientists also identified a genetic pathway
for hair cell regeneration and detailed how proteins in that pathway cooperate to foster the process.
That's because
hair cell loss in the inner ear is progressive and irreversible.
On their quest to restore hearing through gene therapy, scientists have long sought ways to improve gene delivery
into hair cells.
The inner ear is lined with approximately 30,000
sensitive hair cells that convert sound energy into electrical signals that travel to the brain.
In addition, she and her colleagues think that they will be able to identify other genes that have an important role in
hair cell function.
Hearing is lost for good if too
many hair cells are damaged due to aging; loud noise; illness; or certain drugs, including chemotherapy used to treat certain childhood cancers.
Most of the internal structure of a hair is made from collagen, which ultimately
produces hair cells.
In these mice,
hair cells initially developed normally, but then died quickly, leading to rapid hearing loss.
It stems from
tiny hair cells in the inner ear that are surrounded by a layer of gel.
A single spelling error in this gene causes the loss of the inner ear's
hair cells over time.
This group will have lost a large number
of hair cells, but will still have supporting structures, such as neurons, present in the inner ear.
To test the approach in living animals, the researchers worked with mice born without a gene critical
for hair cell function.
Researchers deliver small interfering RNAs loaded into nanoparticles into the ears of adult guinea pigs to
regenerate hair cells damaged by noise.
Eventually, she says, it might be possible to use our increased understanding of RFX transcription factor to treat hearing loss, by either
protecting hair cells from death or fostering their growth.
«For our latest study, we scrutinized the
root hair cells whose development based on polar cell growth depends on the import of auxin,» Rainer Hedrich describes the initial situation of the Würzburg team.
Blind cave fish are able to find their way around by relying on the lateral line, lines of
hair cells on either side of their bodies that detect changes in water pressure caused by movement and water flowing around an object.
The researchers then tracked which supporting cells turned into
hair cells by tagging them with a fluorescent chemical and watching the tissues for at least 4 days.
After exposing supporting cells — cells that can create new cochlear hairs — to a specialized drug mixture, the team saw significant
new hair cell growth.
That's the path pursued by GenVec, which wants to be the Rogaine of the ears, using gene therapy to regrow
damaged hair cells.
Inner ear
hair cells from a newborn mouse Alex Rohacek, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania.
Treatment has focused on electronic devices like hearing aids or cochlear implants because once lost, human auditory
hair cells do not grow back.
Zebrafish larvae exposed to runoff from a June 2014 storm developed one - third
fewer hair cells in their head and trunk.
The work contradicts previous studies that found that multiple types of unidentified supporting cells transform into
hair cells when Notch signaling is blocked.
Mice that produced the extra Atoh1 had almost twice as many
hair cells as did control mice, the researchers report today in Nature.
«Our findings suggest that in mammals, including humans, there may be molecular differences
between hair cells that allow us to hear the wonderful range of sounds that we enjoy.»
The study dives into mechanotransduction —
how hair cells sense mechanical sound waves, or in this case, water waves, and convert them into brain signals.
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists have used clues from studying fish and chickens to advance efforts to
regrow hair cells in humans.
Loss of
hair cells causes permanent deafness, because these cells can not regenerate.
The map could inform future studies related to
human hair cell mechanotransduction, and the causes of genetic deafness.
Your veterinarian may employ several diagnostic methods to confirm the presence of ringworm, including a skin culture or examination of skin and
hair cells using an ultraviolet light called a Wood's lamp.
Those who are born deaf won't be because they often don't have the structures needed to
support hair cells.
One clinical trial involves the drug CGF166, a one - time gene therapy, which, if proven successful in humans, could regenerate new
hair cells within the cochlea that can signal the part of the brain that processes sound.
A different form of congenital hereditary deafness is seen in the Doberman, which is also accompanied by vestibular (balance) disturbance; this deafness results from a different mechanism
where hair cell death is not the result of degeneration of the stria but is instead the primary pathology.
But the researchers think the relative length of the outside and
inside hair cells probably determines where hair falls on the straight / curly spectrum in humans as well — a discovery that could potentially pave the way for the development of new hair products.
Phrases with «hair cells»