Can you hear me now?
If you’re old enough, you may remember the early‑2000s Verizon commercial: “Can you hear me now?” Despite claims of being the nation’s most reliable network, dead zones still exist—and sometimes, no, you can’t hear me now.
Millions with hearing loss
It’s a fitting analogy for the 360 million people worldwide—about 5% of the population—who live with hearing loss. Causes range from genetics and birth defects to loud noise exposure, infections, certain medications, ear disease, and aging. There’s no cure that fully restores hearing, though devices like hearing aids and cochlear implants can help.
Now, there’s new hope. Researchers at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary have developed a stem cell–based technique that may restore hearing. They found that inner‑ear stem cells can be expanded and turned into large numbers of cochlear hair cells—the cells that allow the brain to detect sound. Their findings were published in Cell Reports.
Stem Cells
In earlier work, the team converted inner‑ear stem cells from mice into hair cells. However they couldn’t produce enough to restore hearing. Building on that, they isolated LGR5‑expressing stem cells. They then used a mix of drugs and growth factors to expand them. That enabled them to generate far larger numbers of hair cells.
Using this new method, they produced more than 11,500 hair cells from a single mouse cochlea—over 50 times more than they achieved with the basic approach.
In a news release, senior author on the study, Dr. Albert Edge, explained the importance of their findings for patients with hearing loss:
“We have shown that we can expand Lgr5-expressing cells to differentiate into hair cells in high yield. That opens the door for drug discovery for hearing. We hope that by stimulating these cells to divide and differentiate that we will improve on our previous results in restoring hearing. We have identified the cells of interest and have identified the pathways and drugs to target. These clues may lead us closer to finding drugs that could treat hearing loss in adults.”
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This new discovery is a huge help for people suffering from hearing loss. It’s like a light at the end of the tunnel. However, I think those who can benefit from it are those that can afford. It can be pretty expensive I assume. Glad that there are still other ways like using a hearing aid since it’s pretty affordable these days.
I have to ask how this stem cell hair cell regeneration compares with the new proprietary combination of small-molecule drugs used by the Frequency Therapeutic folks, in regenerating the hair cells. Where do both technologies stand? I certainly wish both — or either — success. There is a HUGE population awaiting success, but I’m sorry of “cost” becomes a determining factor.