What Are Hair Cells?

Hair cells are sensory epithelial cells that are stimulated by sound waves. There are inner and outer hair cells, the inner hair cells are arranged in a row inside the inner column cells, and the outer hair cells are in 3 to 5 rows. The bottom ends of the inner and outer hair cells are supported by the inner and outer finger cells, respectively, and form synaptic connections with the surrounding processes of the spiral ganglion cells.

Hair cells

In the experiment, mice were used as the object. The tissue culture method was used to observe the ultrastructural characteristics of neomycin on vestibular hair cells and the quantitative analysis of the number of hair cells. Characteristics and time course.

Hair cells

Beijing, March 31st, news, British scientists in the laboratory using stem cells to cultivate inner ear hair cells (hair cells), bringing hope for deaf patients to restore hearing.

Researchers at the University of Sheffield in the UK have grown such complex hair and nerve cells necessary for hearing from human stem cells. They found that they could use stem cells from the inner ear of a human aborted fetus to grow extremely useful hair cells. Scientists hope that they can use the cells to transplant cells for deaf patients, replacing the damaged hair and nerve cells of patients with neurological deafness. Neurological deafness is one of the most common deafness, accounting for 90% of the total number of deaf patients, and more than 6 million patients suffer from neurodeafness.

For patients with neurological deafness, the only current method is to implant cochlear implants. However, these electronic devices cannot restore all hearing. "The hair and nerve cells that give us hearing are produced only during embryonic development. Once damaged or lost, they cannot be regenerated. Regenerating or replacing those damaged hair cells and The treatment of nerve cells needs to be obvious. "

The researchers obtained stem cells from the cochlea of an aborted fetus. For patients who lose their hearing shortly after birth, which is why our bodies can't repair damage, these stem cells have the ability to turn into their hearing aids. Rivita and his team found that they could grow these stem cells in the laboratory and grow them into hair cells.

Now they are testing the animals to see if transplanting these cells can restore hearing. He also hopes to grow stem cells from other stem cell sources such as bone marrow. However, he warned that it could take at least 10 years before human patients can transplant stem cells to restore hearing. "In the short term, these cells also provide us with a good model for studying human hearing and the possible effects of new therapies on patients," he said.

The function of hair cells is to convert sounds into electrical stimuli to the brain. As the sound waves pass, these tiny hairs that appear to grow from the surface of the cell move, and this movement sends electrical signals to the brain via nerves. Dr Rafay Holmer, director of biomedical research at the Royal National Institute for the Deaf said: "There is currently no cure for restoring permanent hearing loss, so this approach is potentially important for millions of deaf people . "