The Development of a Stem Cell Therapy for Deafness

Abstract

Medicine is at the doorstep of a phenomenal revolution, brought about by the advances in the stem cell fi eld and the development of new technologies to engineer cells and tissues into more complex organs. The promise of a true regenerative approach to organ damage and loss of function is closer than ever to becoming a reality. The auditory fi eld is participating in these developments with high expectations. Since the cochlea is an organ of diffi cult access and with very limited regenerative capacity, conventional therapeutic approaches have failed and, currently, the only treatments available are in the form of hearing aids and cochlear implants. The potential restoration of hearing by the use of exogenous stem cells will offer a solution to a condition that has very limited options. In this chapter, we review the increasing volume of research on this emerging fi eld and discuss the key elements that need to be developed further, in order to translate the basic science into a clinical reality.