Can't hear your ears? Expected to use drugs for treatment in the future
Can't hear your ears? Expected to use drugs for treatment in the future February 24, 2017 Source: Bio Valley There are many hair cells in the inner ear that are responsible for detecting sound waves and turning them into nerve signals so that we can hear speeches, music and other sounds. Damage to these cells is one of the important causes of hearing loss. Each person has about 15,000 hair cells in each ear, and these cells do not re-grow in the event of damage. But researchers from research institutions such as MIT have recently discovered that a combination of drugs can promote the expansion of progenitor cells in the ear and induce the formation of hair cells, providing a new potential method for the treatment of deafness. The relevant research results are published in the international academic journal Cell Reports. Noise, aging, and some antibiotics and chemotherapy drugs can cause hair cell death. For some animals, these cells can naturally regenerate, but humans can't. In a previous study, researchers have found that exposure of small intestine stem cells to specific molecules allows access to a large number of immature small intestinal cells, which can then stimulate further differentiation of these cells. They also found that cells responsible for providing structural support in the cochlea are also expressed. The same surface markers of small intestinal stem cells. So they decided to further explore whether the same method is equally effective for supporting cells. They cultured cells from the mouse cochlea in the laboratory and then stimulated cells with some molecules that activate the Wnt signaling pathway to promote rapid cell expansion. At the same time, in order to prevent the proliferation of proliferating cells, they also stimulate cells with molecules that activate the Notch signaling pathway. After obtaining a large number of immature progenitor cells, the researchers added another set of molecules to the cultured cells to promote the differentiation of the cells into mature hair cells. This method is more efficient in obtaining hair cells than the best methods before. The researchers also found that their new method is equally effective for intact cochleas taken from mice. In this experiment, the researchers did not need to add molecules that activate the Notch signaling pathway, as progenitor cells naturally form mature hair cells once they are formed. "We only need to promote the proliferation of these supporting cells, and the natural cascade of signals present in the body will promote these cells to become hair cells," said the author, Professor Jeffrey Karp. This treatment requires only a simple drug treatment, and the researchers believe that it will be easier to convert it to a patient. They proposed that drugs can be injected into the middle ear, and the drug can spread to the inner ear. This method of injection is often used to treat ear infections. "We hope that our work will drive research by other scientists on supporting cells and hair cells. Researchers who want to experiment with inner ear hair cells can repeat our work," Karp said. Karp et al. are now applying this method to other types of cells, including small intestinal cells involved in insulin regulation and intestinal flora regulation. Pet Training Pads,Pet Absorbent Dog Pee Pads,Disposable Puppy Pet Training Pads,Reusable Washable Pet Training Pads Honghu Danielle Sanitary Material Co., Ltd. , https://www.daniellecn.com