Researchers at Indiana University School of Medicine are several steps closer to the day when a profoundly deaf patient's own bone marrow cells could be used to let him or her hear the world.
The IU group, led by Eri Hashino, Ph.D., was able to transform, in the laboratory, stem cells taken from adult bone marrow into cells with many of the characteristics of sensory nerve cells -- neurons -- found in the ear. The results suggest that these adult stem cells could be used to treat deaf patients in the future, said Dr. Hashino, an associate professor and Ruth C. Holton Scholar in the Department of Otolaryngology -- Head and Neck Surgery.
The cells used in the research are called marrow stromal cells -- a type of stem cell from which fat, bone and cartilage normally develop.
"We were interested in marrow stromal cells because of their potential for use in autologous cell-based therapy," said Dr. Hashino, referring to cell transplantation in which a patient's own cells are used in treatment. The cells can be collected easily and kept alive in the laboratory until needed, she said.
Other researchers had previously shown that the marrow stromal cells could be induced to transform into neuronal cells, but it wasn't clear whether, or how, the cells could be further transformed into useful specialized neurons.