Hi again… thought I’d tell you all about a really exciting bit of research coming out of the University of Sheffield and Srinakharinwirot University in Thailand.

Stem cells are cells which have the potential to generate more specialized, organ specific cells.

Deafness can be caused by many reasons, but among them is the loss of sensory hair cells in the Cochlea of the ear. The ear looks like this. The organ in the ear which we’re discussing is the Cochlea, the snail shell in the right side of the image.

The hair cells and nerves (we’re talking about the afferent nerve ending) synapsing with them look like this:

Well, although there are cochlear implants, nerve cell loss makes them less than ideal.

The scientists at the above Universities developed a protocol to cause differentiation of human embryonic stem cells into hair cell like cells and auditory sensory neurons that actually caused hearing recovery after being injected into the cochleae of deafened gerbils.

Pretty astounding. They recovered about 50% of their hearing after the cells were injected. That means that while the little guys couldn’t hear whispers, they could hear normal conversation.

This might be one of the amazing treatments of the future for blinded people and those with nerve injuries.

Not yet ready for humans... but, it's a reassuring beginning.

Kudos!