Application and research progress in stem cells therapy for sensorineural deafness / 中国组织工程研究

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The sensorineural deafness occurs as a result of loss of inner ear hair cells in the cochlea or of their primary afferent the spiral ganglion neurons. Stem cells to restore hearing following inner ear cell death has become a focus in recent years.OBJECTIVE: To summarize research progress in stem cells differentiating into inner ear cells in vitro and in vivo and to review the achievement in stem cells replacing inner ear cells in treating sensorineural deafness.METHODS: With "inner ear, stem cells" as key words, a computer-based online search of Pubmed and CNKI was performed for articles published from January 2000 to August 2009. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: A total of 170 articles were collected, and experimental studies and review articles on stem cells in sensorineural deafness were included, while repetitive articles were excluded. Finally, 32 articles were summarized and analyzed. Different types of stem cells have the capacity to differentiate into inner ear cells. They can differentiate into neural cell types. Stem cells can live and migrate, differentiating into cell types of the sites of injury. It provides a therapy strategy to restore hearing following sensorineural deafness by he capacity of stem cells differentiating into inner ear cells. However, it remains further investigation how to function following cell differentiation and how to form the appropriate neural pathways by stem cell transplantation in sensorineural deafness.