Important clues that may help scientists develop new techniques to regenerate ear hair cells and reverse hearing loss is provided by new research led by scientists at Oregon Health & Science University. The researchers discovered the development of hair bundles occurs in a kind of feedback loop in which form follows function and function drives form.
Hair bundles are precisely arranged cellular structures deep within the spiral cavity of the inner ear. Together, they convert vibrational energy into electrical signals in the brain that translate into the sensation of hearing.
Once they’re lost — whether by loud noise, toxins, disease or aging — they do not naturally regenerate in people and other mammals.
Transduction And Stereocilia
Using mice, which closely model human hearing, the researchers found stereocilia, roughly 100 of which are assembled into a hair bundle, widened simultaneously with the onset of mechanotransduction — the action of converting mechanical signals in the form of sound into electrical signals measured within the brain. The stereocilia only elongated to their mature lengths after transduction had been established.
It turns out that form and function are mutually reinforcing.
“We’ve been looking at these as separate pathways. But in the course of this research, we observed the change in form occurs at the same time as the conversion of mechanical to electrical signals. So we’re seeing these happen together, and feeding each other in a way we hadn’t seen before,”
said lead author Jocelyn Krey, Ph.D., staff scientist in the Oregon Hearing Research Center and the Vollum Institute at OHSU.
Early Development
The researchers discovered when they examined mice lacking transduction or used a compound to block transduction, the animals did not develop the classic staircase-shaped form of mature hair bundles.
Researchers say the study suggests that new techniques to reverse hearing loss should focus on the critical importance of early development.
“In the future, with the rapid development of gene editing tools like CRISPR, we will be able to turn on genes at will. I have no doubt we will be there in 5 or 10 years,”
said senior author Peter Barr-Gillespie, Ph.D., professor in the Oregon Hearing Research Center and senior scientist in the Vollum Institute.
[1] Jocelyn F. Krey, Paroma Chatterjee, Rachel A. Dumont, Mary O’Sullivan, Dongseok Choi, Jonathan E. Bird. Mechanotransduction-Dependent Control of Stereocilia Dimensions and Row Identity in Inner Hair Cells. Current Biology (2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.11.076
Last Updated on November 9, 2022