A research team at the University of Sheffield University (UK) has announced achieve a major advance in the treatment of deafness by using human stem cells to restore partial hearing in animals (gerbil species – gerbil). According to the team, the level of hearing recovery is equivalent to the previous work can not hear the trucks on the road today can hear normal conversation in the room. It’s amazing! It is known that this is the world’s first successful human auditory rehabilitation, though currently only on animals. The transfer from animal to human studies will be conducted in the near future despite many difficulties, challenges await. Maybe on the patient deaf auditory restore not too far-fetched as we once thought. Hearing mechanism and cause disease diecTruoc when going into the details of the study, let’s take a little back explore mechanisms heard of us and two of the main causes of deafness. Mechanisms picking up sound, if you want to listen to music or voice, your ears will have to convert sound waves into electrical signals that our brain can understand. This process occurs in the inner ear, where the vibrations will shift the very small hairs (called the inner ear hair cells) electrical signal generated by the vibration of the bristles. Then, the nerve cells called spiral ganglion neurons (spiral ganglion neurons) will receive this power and signal transmission to the brain. Reportedly, about 1/10 people with severe hearing loss caused from damage to spiral ganglion neuron cells. While most of the rest coming from the damaged inner ear hair cells. Objectives, methods, processes, and results trials cuuNham at 1/10 the number of people to cause damage to spiral ganglion neurons *, the research team at the University of Sheffield to replace cells damaged by the economic new cells, which is the main focus and the initial target of the group’s breakthrough research. By using stem cells from human embryos, cells have the ability to become any type of cell in the human body from skin to nerve cells or skeletal muscle …, the team add a chemical compound to turn stem cells into the same format as spiral ganglion neurons. Then they carefully injects them into the ears of 18 deaf jumping mouse. Surprisingly, this therapy, after 10 weeks the hearing of the experimental mice was markedly improved. Specifically, 1/3 of the mice respond well to treatment, some hearing restored to 90% while others merely hear. According to the team, averaging about our hearing was restored about 45% of the time before the end of the experiment. “This is not a perfect treatment, they will not be able to hear a whisper, but make sure they can hear a conversation in the room” while ago that “we can not hear a the truck is on the way, “said Dr Marcelo Rivolta, a member of the research team said. It’s great is not it? Explain why choose gerbil animal experiments, the authors said the reason is because they have the same frequency range sounded like people, not like a mouse can only hear the sound pitch large, and thus the subsequent research on humans is also more convenient. In addition, the researchers said they measured the hearing mouse jumping by measuring the brain waves. Difficult … and can interfere with successful step on the nguoiKho towel first and biggest is related to the technical aspects. In humans, the inner ear is a complex parts, small, and difficult to access. Therefore, the introduction of stem cells into the inner ear to replace the damaged spiral ganglion neurons have a real challenge. The second difficulty related to the safety and ethical aspects of stem cells. As you know, currently only some countries allow research / treatment by means of stem cells, the reason is because they are often taken from human embryos that many people think it is a real living the. Instead said ketVan know much remains to be done before successfully applied in the study, but with this breakthrough, we can fully expect to one day not too far away, thanks to medical advances, million deaf people in the world will burst the happy sound rang in their ears. That is the human face of stem cell research ethical side have been discussed above. Currently, this study has been published online in the prestigious journal Nature on 12/09 last at this address. You are interested can read and learn more. * According to the scientists, the remaining number of people with hearing loss caused by damage to the inner ear hair cells can not restore your hearing in the same manner to replace these cells with stem cells, because the put them in place needed to be extremely difficult, almost impossible. This task is unrealistic that the nurturing and totally a new ear implant easier! Source: Reuters, BBC, Telegraph …
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