Stem Cell Therapy — Hope for Withdrawal/Stress and Ototoxic Damage?

[Cal18]

We've all heard that there is much hope and research behind repairing damaged hair cells due to sound induced trauma. I'm just looking for any reasoning as to why it might help with ototoxic and withdrawal damage. I know everyone is saying this type of damage is "in the brain" - so would this be considered neuronal damage and does this article support that stem cell therapy might work? https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/stem-cell-therapy-heals-injured-mouse-brain

Just looking for some hope and valid arguments. Also wanted to mention that I have been truly awed by some of the members on this board in regards to their overall knowledge and theories. I'm still a bit new here but is there a place where we can submit theories and topics valid for further studies and investigations by universities and scientists.

 

[Rasmus]

Well i think it is something in the ear that makes tinnitus sounds. But im not sure its your hair cells since people who dont have hearing lose also have tinnitus.(I dont say it not hair cell that is making tinnitus sounds) But it could be many things like your ear nerv that is doing it. that would also explain why people dont have hearing lose also get it. But again im no doctor or scientist But stem cells can fix alot of things
It could also be damage hair cells, but they are not damage enough to lose hearing. It can be many things. :/


Sorry bad english :/

 

[wags]

It's actually thought that ototoxic damage may be "simpler" (using this word carefully, but since you're looking for hope) to rectify than acoustic trauma. The reason being is during some types of ototoxic damage only cause degradation of the ribbon synapses that connect the inner hair cells to the auditory nerve fibers, and the inner hair cells themselves may remain undamaged, so that when a growth factor is introduced to these cells in an attempt to reconnect the cell to the auditory nerve fiber by regenerating these ribbon synapses, you have a healthy inner hair cell still in place. The cells in these cases just need to be "plugged back into the brain", so to speak.

This is opposed to acoustic trauma, where stereocilia on the inner hair cells themselves can actually be physically damaged due to the high levels of energy transferred into the inner ear and the ribbon synapses are destroyed, thus when a growth factor is introduced to these cells, the ribbon synapse either wont/cannot/defectively reattach the damaged inner hair cell to the auditory nerve fiber. As such this causes obvious problems due to the potential of bad (or no) auditory responses getting sent to the brain. Even if the cells are plugged back into the brain" they may not work correctly.

Synaptopathy varies from drug to drug and noise to noise and a lot of research still needs to be undertaken to understand these events and how they affect the ear. However, I believe in this case a greater understanding of the ear in any context will bolster the progress of all contexts, There's a possibility, for example, that if the hair cells become nonfunctional at all (whether via trauma or ototoxicity), we may need to grow entirely new cells anyways, so stem cell would be a benefit to all ailments in that regard.

I could totally be off base here, however, so anyone with further knowledge please feel free to expand/correct me.