Nasal Stem Cells Help to Cure Infant Hearing Loss

Australian researchers may have discovered a new way to treat hearing loss in infants. And the secret lies in the NOSE.

Our reporter Li Dong has the details.

 
Noses comes in all shapes and sizes, and Australian scientists are now trumpeting¹ a new use for the most prominent human organ.

Scientists in Sydney have found that nasal stem cells have the potential to reverse or even restore hearing in children with early onset² hearing problems.

Sharon Oleskevich is the lead researcher on the project at the University of New South Wales. She says that cells taken from adult noses are easy to harvest.

"These stem cells are easy to get, they are easy to access. They are abundant and they are multi-potent which means they can turn into different types of cells."

Scientists found that the mucosa-derived nasal stem cells could be implanted into the cochlea, or the inner ear, to help preserve its functioning.

This procedure has been tested on laboratory mice, yielding significant results according to Oleskevich:

"The animals that received stem cells showed improved hearing compared to the sham³, or placebo⁴ injected animals. We had not completely restored their hearing but there was a significant improvement in their level of hearing."

Often, hearing loss is inherited and can be detected during infancy⁵ or early childhood.

The Sydney scientists believe that their study may contribute to the treatment of deaf children, greatly improving their quality of life.

Deafness in the young can have dramatic, long term implications, according to Oleskevich:

"Childhood hearing loss is not just about deafness. It has obvious implications for language development, psycho-social development, and definitely the potential for mental health issues later down the track."

Because mice have similar hearing to humans, scientists were able to closely monitor the results.

So far, findings are proving positive, but it is still expected to take at least ten years before trials will be able to be conducted on children.

The research findings are published in the science journal Stem Cells.

For CRI, I am Li Dong.

1 trumpeting   

大声说出或宣告（trumpet的现在分词形式）

参考例句：

• She is always trumpeting her son. 她总是吹嘘她儿子。
• The wind is trumpeting, a bugle calling to charge! 风在掌号。冲锋号！ 来自汉英文学 - 散文英译

2 onset   

n.进攻，袭击，开始，突然开始

参考例句：

• The drug must be taken from the onset of the infection.这种药必须在感染的最初期就开始服用。
• Our troops withstood the onset of the enemy.我们的部队抵挡住了敌人的进攻。

3 sham   

n./adj.假冒(的)，虚伪(的)

参考例句：

• They cunningly played the game of sham peace.他们狡滑地玩弄假和平的把戏。
• His love was a mere sham.他的爱情是虚假的。

4 placebo   

n.安慰剂；宽慰话

参考例句：

• The placebo has been found to work with a lot of different cases.人们已发现安慰剂能在很多不同的病例中发挥作用。
• The placebo effect refers to all the observable behaviors caused by placebo.安慰剂效应是指由安慰剂所引起的可观察的行为。

5 infancy   

n.婴儿期；幼年期；初期

参考例句：

• He came to England in his infancy.他幼年时期来到英国。
• Their research is only in its infancy.他们的研究处于初级阶段。