‘Hearing’ cells grown in bid to cure deafness in the elderly

BRITISH scientists have taken a significant step towards regenerating ear cells which are critical to hearing in old age and could prevent the dizziness that accounts for 80 per cent of falls in the elderly.

Scientists at University College London (UCL) have for the first time turned ordinary tissue from the human ear into cells with hairlike features.

By regenerating cells in the ear’s “vestibular” system – which is responsible for balance – they could prevent falls and dizziness, the most common cause of GP visits in those aged over 70.

Human inner ear hair cells, which are also responsible for hearing, cannot regenerate, so leave people permanently deaf and unbalanced.

“We have shown that the human vestibular tissue has the capacity to generate cells with characteristics similar to hair cells,” Dr Ruth Taylor, of UCL’S Ear Institute, told The Daily Telegraph. “Deafness affects 50 per cent of people over the age of 60 and if our research could be extended to the cochlea it would have a major impact on the population.”

The inner ear is responsible for balance through the vestibular system, and hearing through the cochlea. Hair cells detect movement or sound, and their loss is a cause of disorders such as deafness, dizziness and imbalance.

Dr Taylor’s team replicated in humans experiments previously done in mice, in which a gene, called Atoh1, switched on a signalling pathway through which ordinary ear tissue was regenerated as hair cells. She believed the challenge of increasing the number of cells was “not insurmountable” but it would take time and resources to generate fully functioning hair cells.