The Development of a Stem Cell Therapy for Deafness

Abstract

Medicine is at the doorsteps of a phenomenal revolution, brought by the advances in the stem cell field 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 of becoming a reality. The auditory field is participating of these developments with high ­expectations. Since the cochlea is an organ of difficult 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 are reviewing the increasing volume of research on this emerging field and ­discussing the key elements that need to be developed further, in order to translate the basic science into a clinical reality.