{"id":125699,"date":"2021-07-31T11:22:34","date_gmt":"2021-07-31T18:22:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2021\/07\/stem-cell-scientists-explore-the-latent-regenerative-potential-of-the-inner-ear"},"modified":"2021-07-31T11:22:34","modified_gmt":"2021-07-31T18:22:34","slug":"stem-cell-scientists-explore-the-latent-regenerative-potential-of-the-inner-ear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2021\/07\/stem-cell-scientists-explore-the-latent-regenerative-potential-of-the-inner-ear","title":{"rendered":"Stem Cell Scientists Explore the Latent Regenerative Potential of the Inner Ear"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/stem-cell-scientists-explore-the-latent-regenerative-potential-of-the-inner-ear2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur study raises the possibility of using therapeutic drugs, gene editing, or other strategies to make epigenetic modifications that tap into the latent regenerative capacity of inner ear cells as a way to restore hearing,\u201d said Segil. \u201cSimilar epigenetic modifications may also prove useful in other non-regenerating tissues, such as the retina, kidney, lung, and heart.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>Scientists from the USC Stem Cell laboratory of Neil Segil have identified a natural barrier to the regeneration of the inner ear\u2019s sensory cells, which are lost in hearing and balance disorders. Overcoming this barrier may be a first step in returning inner ear cells to a newborn-like state that\u2019s primed for regeneration, as described in a new study published in <em>Developmental Cell.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cPermanent hearing loss affects more than 60 percent of the population that reaches retirement age,\u201d said Segil, who is a Professor in the Department of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, and the USC Tina and Rick Caruso Department of Otolaryngology \u2013 Head and Neck Surgery. \u201cOur study suggests new gene engineering approaches that could be used to channel some of the same regenerative capability present in embryonic inner ear cells.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the inner ear, the hearing organ, which is the cochlea, contains two major types of sensory cells: \u201chair cells\u201d that have hair-like cellular projections that receive sound vibrations; and so-called \u201csupporting cells\u201d that play important structural and functional roles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cOur study raises the possibility of using therapeutic drugs, gene editing, or other strategies to make epigenetic modifications that tap into the latent regenerative capacity of inner ear cells as a way to restore hearing,\u201d said Segil. \u201cSimilar epigenetic modifications may also prove useful in other non-regenerating tissues, such as the retina, kidney, lung, and [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":621,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1902,11,412,269],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bioengineering","category-biotech-medical","category-genetics","category-life-extension"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/621"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125699\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}