时事资讯:一条小鱼可以拯救你的听力？_时事

时事资讯:一条小鱼可以拯救你的听力？

Until the mid-1980s, researchers thought warm-blooded vertebrates, including humans, weren't able to regenerate hair cells. Then, researchers around the country began observing that hair cells grew back in birds whose hearing was damaged either by noise or drugs. They also determined that hair-cell regeneration can result in improved hearing; in experiments, song birds that had grown new hair cells were able to resume singing their original songs with perfect pitch again.

But there is no indication that mammals can regenerate hair cells. And why some animals, even within the same species, are more vulnerable to hair-cell death, while others are more resistant to it, is a mystery. 'I literally walked around for years wondering about this variability,' says Ed Rubel, a professor of hearing sciences who leads part of the University of Washington research effort.

There are two main approaches to efforts aimed at inducing hair cells to regenerate. Some research groups are attempting to get stem cells -- undifferentiated cells that can develop into various specialized cells -- to turn into hair cells, either by transplanting them from other parts of the body, or by stimulating stem cells naturally occurring in the inner ear to transform themselves. Albert Edge, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and a researcher at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, says his team has been able to turn mouse stem cells into hair cells in a laboratory dish, though it isn't clear whether those cells are functional or not.