TWO types of human ear cell have been grown in the lab from fetal stem cells. The initial hope is to use these cells to devise ways to regenerate or repair ear cells and screen for chemicals that cause hearing loss. Further in the future, similar cells might be delivered to damaged ears to restore hearing.
of the University of Sheffield in the UK and colleagues extracted cochlear stem cells from aborted fetuses, with the consent of the women involved. Such stem cells stop being produced after 11 weeks鈥� gestation. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 why deafness is permanent, because we don鈥檛 have the stem cells to replace damaged cells in the ear,鈥� says Rivolta, whose team presented the findings on 6 April at a stem cell conference in Oxford, UK.
Rivolta鈥檚 team exposed the stem cells to various nutrients and growth factors, and found one cocktail that produced cells similar to auditory hair cells. When mature, these cells grow hairs that bend in response to sound, generating electrical signals.
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A second recipe generated auditory neurons, which receive signals from the hair cells and transmit them to the brain.
The team is now trying to make ear cells from embryonic stem cells, to avoid the need for fetuses.