Okay, I have a friend who is hearing impaired and he wears hearing aids in his right ear but he is almost completely deaf in his left ear. If he hears a really, really loud sound, he can hear it in his left ear. He hears pretty well in his right ear with his hearing aid on. He doesn't know if he was born deaf or if he turned deaf while he was turning older. He's worn hearing aids since he was 3 years old.
Will stem cells help to cure his hearing impairment? It depends on what the cause of his hearing impairment but it looks promising for a large number of hearing impaired people. If the cause is that the ears are missing some fine hairs in the ears that are a huge part of the hearing process, there is active research being done. Estimates of when range from 10 years to 50 years. Let's hope that it is 10 so these people will benefit soon from restored hearing or new hearing and a whole new life. I'm attaching a good site about this. About | HE Shop | Message Boards | Contact Us
Stem Cell Researcher on Hearing Loss Receives Grant
Author: Paula Rosenthal
University of Michigan announced a $22 million gift from Al Taubman, a retail pioneer and philanthropist. The gift includes funding for脗 five top scientists, each in the amount of $200,000 for three year studies on cures for human diseases and conditions. One researcher is Yehoash Raphael who is trying to use stem cells to help deaf and hard of hearing people regain hearing.
Yehoash Raphael: Toward a cure for deafness
Scientist芒鈧劉s team is exploring revolutionary strategy to restore hearing
Hear Dr. Raphael speak
Inner-ear biologist Yehoash Raphael, Ph.D., wants to pull off an audacious feat. In animals, and later in people, he hopes to discover how to insert stem cells into deafened inner ears, and coax tissues there to regenerate the lost hair cells that are crucial to hearing.
For the hundreds of millions of people worldwide who suffer from partial or total hearing loss, the benefits could be huge -- though Raphael cautions that this goal is still many years away. For now, hearing aids and cochlear implants help many, but the new concept that his team will pursue with Taubman Institute funding could accelerate a promising option for a large number of deaf people.
Hair cells are the essential conveyors of sounds in the ear. To make them grow again, Raphael and a multidisciplinary team first need to develop successful methods to plant and grow stem cells in the inner ear. It芒鈧劉s a complex, untried process that will involve gene transfer and tissue engineering.
In this picture of cells cultured by the Raphael-Kohrman team, the green cells are newly introduced cells that have become integrated into an existing layer of cells. This integration is crucial for the goal of restoring hearing by growing new hair cells in the damaged inner ears of deaf people. Now, this cell culture model will be used to design new ways to enhance the integration of newly introduced cells, which may open the door for the use of stem cells as a therapy for deafness.
First, the multidisciplinary team, with the help of David Kohrman, Ph.D., associate professor in otolaryngology and human genetics at the U-M Medical School, will develop methods that work in cell cultures. Then the team will move to animal tests, drawing on the expertise of other researchers in the Kresge Hearing Research Institute.
Raphael specializes in inner-ear biology, hereditary inner ear disease and restoring function in deaf ears. He heads the Otopathology Laboratory at Kresge and is the R. Jamison and Betty Williams Professor of Otolaryngology at the U-M Medical School.
In a recent breakthrough, he and his team used gene transfer techniques to regenerate hair cells and restore hearing in guinea pigs. In these guinea pig ears, hair cells were missing but other supporting cells remained in place, Raphael says. When inner ear trauma is very severe, however, even supporting cells are eliminated. In such cases, gene transfer does not work well, and the only hope for restoring the hair cells is the use of stem cell technology. The Taubman-sponsored work is aimed at treating those severely traumatized ears.
Stem-cell-based therapy for hearing loss is a new idea that is generating excitement among scientists. 芒鈧揟his is a pretty radical and innovative approach,芒鈧?the kind of untested idea that traditional funding agencies don芒鈧劉t usually support, says Raphael. He says he and his colleagues are extremely grateful for the funding and also the personal interest that Mr. Taubman has taken in the project. 芒鈧揌is involvement, keen interest and understanding are very energizing,芒鈧?he says.
The stem cells used in the early phases of the team芒鈧劉s work were animal stem cells. In deaf inner ears where hair cells and other supporting cells are gone, there remains only a diminished base of primitive cells.
It will be a big challenge to get these existing cells to accept the stem cells. 芒鈧揑magine tiles on a floor,芒鈧?he says. 芒鈧揅ells in the ear are connected to each other like a set of tiles. You need to engineer the existing tiles to open up and receive the newcomers.芒鈧?Also, the stem cells themselves will need to be manipulated to allow them to integrate in the deaf ear. 脗 The Taubman Institute grant will make this work possible, and pave the way for further funding from other sources. Raphael says, 芒鈧揑f we make g "Deafness
There has been success in regrowing cochlea hair cells with the use of stem cells."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stem_cell_t...
So right now it looks like it just the Hair, so at this time it looks like no.
Best Wish's,
Nolwe It depends what the cause of the deafness is. Unless you wanted to grow him a new cochlea and eardrum, it probably won't help. Sorry, bro. |
