There may be new hope for people who have lost some of their hearing due to exposure to loud noises, or simply due to aging. Scientists from the University of Michigan and Harvard University have restored hearing in mice, by getting them to create more of a protein within their ears…
In the Michigan/Harvard research, mice were first subjected to loud noises, causing them to lose some of their hearing via damage to their synapses. A group of those animals was then treated with a technique known as conditional gene recombination, in which drugs are used to activate genes in selected cells. In this case, the cells were in their inner ears, and they were triggered to produce more than the normal amount of NT3 (Neurotrophin-3) – this is a protein which plays a vital role in the production and maintenance of ribbon synapses.
After two weeks, the treated mice were found to have recovered much more of their hearing than an untreated control group.
via Gizmag
