Cloning could fix hearing problems

"Can you hear me now?" A New Mexico State University researcher is studying sensory cells in the ear in hopes of finding treatments to restore destroyed cells, which can cause hearing or balance problems.

Biology associate professor Elba Serrano and her students are pursuing two projects that involve cloning cells or genes.

"The ear is a force sensor," she said.

"Hair" cells -- sensory cells that look like hairs -- perceive the force of sound to allow hearing and the force of gravity to maintain balance, she said.

When things such as noise, mutated genes or aging destroy the cells, they don't regenerate in humans.

Ray Bamberg, Las Cruces board-certified hearing instrument specialist, said physical problems such as punctured ear drums may also cause hearing loss.

Bamberg said periodicals state that 20 percent of the U.S. population suffers from hearing loss. He said his patients' ages range from 2 to 100.

Dr. Robert Ivey, audiology specialist, said destruction of sensory cells and other factors can cause balance problems. He said fewer people have balance problems than hearing loss.

"It's a fairly hardy system actually," he said.

Serrano and her students use cells from various species, including humans and an African frog.

She said the gene that regenerates sensory cells in the frog may exist in an inactive state in humans. If scientists identify the gene in the frog, they might be able to recognize and trigger it in humans, she said.

Recently, master's student Shannon Manuelito grew a frog ear in a dish in an incubator, Serrano said. While it is viable, scientists can experiment on it.

"So our hope is to have it growing for months eventually," she said.

With the ear, she said, they can destroy sensory cells and try to regenerate them in hopes of applying the knowledge to restore human sensory cells.

"You cannot do this work easily," she said.

If scientists identify the gene that creates hair cells, they might be able turn it on to make another type of cell become a sensory cell, she said.

In related work, research associate Casilda Trujillo-Provencio and doctoral student David Sultemeier seem to have cloned one type of ion channel, a part of the nervous system that occurs throughout the body and carries the electrical current that stimulates responses. They plan to confirm the channel is functional, working with biology professor Peter Ruben at Utah State University.

With the cloned channel, researchers can study what genes are present and what treatment can cause absent genes to return, Serrano said.

Sultemeier said the research "opened my eyes to a lot of things in life." "It's made me appreciate how valuable our sense of hearing really is," he said.

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