New studies on hair cell regeneration in birds

Abstract

Abstract:The discovery of hair cell regeneration in birds a little over a decade ago raises a number of obvious and exciting questions about basic functional and neural plasticity in the vertebrate auditory system. Because many birds must learn the complex, species-specific, acoustic signals they use for communication just as humans must learn the sounds of speech, the finding of hair cell regeneration in birds also raises other interesting questions. One of these questions concerns the relation between hearing loss and vocal production. Another question concerns the effect of full or partial hearing recovery on vocal behavior. The purpose of this paper is to review what is known about the functional (i.e. behavioral) consequences of hair cell loss and subsequent hair cell regeneration in birds, to point out the relevance of this work for human hearing recovery, and to suggest some directions for future research.

Neurogenomic insights into the behavioral and vocal development of the zebra finch

“…Second, hair cell regeneration following a loud noise or antibiotic treatment in both Bengalese ( Woolley and Rubel, 2002 ) and zebra finches ( Dooling and Dent, 2001 ) occurs rapidly, as it does in other, non-oscine birds ( Stone and Rubel, 2000 ) and in some other vertebrate lineages (e.g. fish: Monroe et al, 2015 ).…”

“…Second, hair cell regeneration following a loud noise or antibiotic treatment in both Bengalese (Woolley and Rubel, 2002) and zebra finches (Dooling and Dent, 2001) occurs rapidly, as it does in other, non-oscine birds (Stone and Rubel, 2000) and in some other vertebrate lineages (e.g., fishes: Monroe et al 2015). Research into such auditory system regeneration abilities in birds and other animals had strongly promised, but has thus far evaded, broadly applicable biomedical solutions for curing cell-death based hearing losses in humans (Brigande andHeller 2009, Menendez et al 2020).…”

A Review of Gene Delivery and Stem Cell Based Therapies for Regenerating Inner Ear Hair Cells

“…At the same time, Jørgensen and Mathiesen showed that there were mitotic activity and continuous proliferation of hair cells in the vestibular epithelium of adult parakeets [ 13 ]. Ever since, there has been steady progress in understanding the mechanics and pathways of avian and mammalian (rat, mouse, guinea pig) hair cell regeneration [ 8 , 10 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 ]. Significant development in hair cell regeneration is outlined in the following reviews [ 7 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 ].…”

WDR1 presence in the songbird basilar papilla

“…Briefly, numerous hair cells are lost in the sensory epithelium regions most sensitive to the injurious stimulus (Cotanche, 1987a;Cruz et al, 1987;Corwin and Cotanche, 1988;Ryals and Rubel, 1988;Raphael, 1992Raphael, , 1993Dooling et al, 1997Dooling et al, , 2006Ryals et al, 1999;Dooling and Dent, 2001). Hair cells that survive such an impact show substantial damage, including various stereocilia alterations (floppy, shortened, fused, elongated, missing, splattered) and shrunken apical surfaces (Saunders et al, 1985;Cotanche and Dopyera, 1990;Cotanche et al, 1991;Marsh et al, 1990;Raphael, 1993;Adler and Saunders, 1995;Dooling et al, 2006).…”

“…The damaged tectorial membrane gains a new honeycombed pattern layer, at least partially restoring its shearing motion with the underlying hair cells in the region affected by noise (Cotanche, 1987b(Cotanche, , 1992Saunders et al, 1992;Adler et al, 1992Adler et al, , 1993Adler et al, , 1995aAdler, 1996) or ototoxic drugs (Epstein and Cotanche, 1995). As a result of such repair, birds are able to regain most, if not all, of their lost hearing (see for review, Cotanche, 1999;Smolders, 1999;Dooling et al, 1997Dooling et al, , 2006Ryals et al, 1999;Dooling and Dent, 2001). Thus, birds provide an important model for examining hair cell loss and regeneration following acoustic or ototoxic trauma.…”