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？

Dr. Rubel's and Dr. Raible's teams also are studying the genetics of zebrafish to identify markers that confer hair-cell protection.

Last year, their labs jointly identified several genetic mutations and drug-like compounds that seemed to protect hair cells from death, publishing their findings in the journal PLoS Genetics. In a separate study, published in 2007 in Hearing Research, they identified several drugs that also appear to be protective and were already approved for other purposes by the Food and Drug Administration. No tests have been performed on humans, however.

The teams also are working on a separate group of studies to understand the genes and other molecules that allow the regeneration of hair cells in zebrafish, birds and mice.

Surrounding cells known as support cells can both turn into hair cells or generate new hair cells. Dr. Rubel's lab is investigating both processes. 'If we understand the template of genes that are expressed by the cells we would want to divide, then we could tap into that template' to mimic regeneration efforts in mammals, he says.

One finding identified a developmental protein that appears to be turned on in animals able to regenerate hair cells. In one study, a team member found a type of protein increased in a chick (which can regenerate hair cells) after its cells were damaged. But in running the same experiment in a mouse (which can't regenerate hair cells), the protein didn't increase, suggesting the protein could be involved in regeneration.