Recent advances in hair cell regeneration research.
Hope for regenerative therapies was first born in the '90s when it was discovered that the inner ear of birds can regenerate hair cells that have been damaged by drugs or noise trauma and reconnect them to the brain! Many research groups around the world have since been trying to reproduce this regeneration in the mammalian cochlea.
Hair follicles undergo periodic regeneration, which provides a tractable ive model for regenerat medicine research. Previous research determined that Wnt10b, Wnt7a, and Wnt7b are activators of hair follicle regeneration (9, 10), whereas Wnt5a is an inhibitor of hair follicle regeneration.
Hair Cell Regeneration, Repair, and Protection provides a comprehensive survey of what is currently known about the regeneration, repair and protection of sensory hair cells and subsequent recovery of function in the auditory and vestibular system. The aim is to provide graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, clinicians and scientists in related disciplines with the biological bases of hair.
Previous research has shown that, in the newborn mouse inner ear, cells can be induced to divide and regenerate hair cells after damage. However, in fully mature ears, the capacity for cell division is lost, and hair cell regeneration does not occur. In humans, even a newborn inner ear is fully mature.
Researchers at Massachusetts Eye and Ear and Harvard Medical School have demonstrated for the first time that hair cells can be regenerated in an adult mammalian ear by using a drug to stimulate resident cells to become new hair cells, resulting in partial recovery of hearing in mouse ears damaged by noise trauma. This finding, reported in the Jan. 10 issue of Neuron, holds great potential for.
Adipocyte precursor cells generate lipid-filled mature adipocytes in multiple tissues during a high-fat diet and in skin during hair follicle growth. In Science, Plikus et al. report that myofibroblasts can generate lipid-filled adipocytes in large skin wounds that regenerate hair follicles, suggesting a new source of adipogenic progenitor cells.
A year ago, a group of researchers at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary discovered that an experimental drug could regenerate hair cells in the inner ear that sense sound and restore rudimentary.