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New Stem Cell Therapy Holds Promise To Treat Deafness
Deafness typically involves the loss of sensory receptors, called hair cells, for their "tufts" of hair-like protrusions, and their associated neurons.
Led by Dr. Marcelo N. Rivolta of the University of Sheffield, researchers have has successfully isolated human auditory stem cells from foetal cochleae (the auditory portion of the inner ear) and found that they could be differentiated into sensory hair cells and neurons.
The researchers carefully dissected and cultured cochlear cells from 9-11 week-old human fetuses.
They then expanded the cells and maintained in vitro for up to one year, with continued division for the first 7 to 8 months and up to 30 population doublings, which is similar to other non-embryonic stem cell populations, such as bone marrow.
Gene expression analysis showed that all cell lines expressed tic markers that lead to the development of the inner ear as well as markers expressed by pluripotent embryonic stem cells, from which all tissues and organs develop.
The researchers could formulate conditions that allowed for the progressive differentiation into neurons and hair cells with the same functional electrophysiological characteristics as cells seen in vivo.
"The results are the first in vitro renewable stem cell system derived from the human auditory organ and have the potential for a variety of applications, such as studying the development of human cochlear neurons and hair cells, as models for drug screening and helping to develop cell-based therapies for deafness," said the authors.
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More News on: Stem Cells - Cord Blood, Stem Cells - Fundamentals, Parkinsons Disease Surgical Treatment, Genetics and Stem Cells, Reiki and Pranic Healing
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