Regrown Inner Ear Hair Reverses Hearing Loss
Animals other than mammals are able to regenerate nerve structures—e.g. inner ear hair cells—that maintain hearing lifelong. Knowing this, researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center and Harvard collaborators investigated receptors in those cells and found three means for activating a tyrosine kinase 2 that stimulates other epidermal growth factors in this way: “. . . . the ERBB2 pathway triggered a cascading series of cellular events by which cochlear support cells began to proliferate and start the process of activating other neighboring stem cells to become new sensory hair cells. Furthermore, it appears that this process not only could impact the regeneration of sensory hair cells, but also support their integration with nerve cells.” MORE
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