A team of researchers from the universities of Michigan and Harvard, in the US, has restored the ability to hear a group of mice that had become deaf after being exposed to very high noise levels.
As these experts explain in an article published in the eLife magazine, for this they achieved that the animals increased the production of a protein, called NT3, which is essential in hearing . These scientists argue that NT3 plays a key role in maintaining the connections between the hair cells in the ear, which function as transducers and participate, among other things, in our ability to hear and our sense of balance, and the nerves that carry sound signals to the brain.
The researchers used genetic engineering techniques to make virtually deaf rodents produce more NT3 in cells in specific areas of the inner ear. Over time, they regained their hearing.
The professor of Neurology Gabriel Corfas, who has coordinated the study, points out that it is a very common problem also in people, and that this advance could serve in the future to develop new treatments that reduce hearing loss caused by noises and the passing of the years.
