Stem Cells
In just a few posts, this blog has hopefully established that “curing” hearing loss is far more complex than most people would think. For one thing, there’s the Deaf culture and identity, which views hearing loss not as something to be cured, but as something to be embraced. People who desire to participate in Deaf culture and use sign language as their primary language should be completely free, both of judgment and of regulation, to do so. But even for people who do view hearing loss as a thing to be addressed and fixed, there are complications. Depending on the nature of the loss, amplification might not work. And invasive methods like cochlear implants and bone anchored hearing aids are so new and recently developed that they have many flaws. Developers are constantly working to decrease these flaws and eventually do away with them entirely, but these things take time.
While hearing aid and cochlear implant developers work tirelessly to fix their technology, researchers have recently focused in on the sensation that’s sweeping the scientific nation: stem cells. In theory, stem cells could be the fix for pretty much everything. What could be better than the ability to inject a few cells into a person and allow his or her own body to take care of the rest? There would be no complications with noncompliant technology or rejection of foreign objects. Perfecting stem cell medicine would be the equivalent of perfecting self-healing, a power that not so long ago was thought to belong only in fantasy movies.
The article “NEUROG1 Regulates CDK2 to Promote Proliferation in Otic Progenitors” addresses the idea of using stem cells to regulate hair cell regeneration. Perhaps the most widespread form of hearing loss is hair cell deterioration, the natural effect of living in a world that produces all kinds of sounds at all levels of volume, all the time. If stem cells could be used to reverse this, it could change everything. The inconvenience of slight hearing loss in young people who work in loud environments would be gone. Older people would no longer have to relearn how to process the world after finally agreeing to get hearing aids. A large percentage of the world’s hearing loss would be reversible to the point of extinction. To get the details of the article, you can access it the usual ways (the Cited Articles menu or the bottom of this post). I would encourage you to check it out.
This research seems so ideal, but of course as we delve deeper we can begin to see a problem. Cell reproduction seems like a good concept when we are talking about cells that are dead, damaged, or missing, but proliferation can easily creep in as a destructive force. What starts as an inspired attempt at restoration can quickly and easily become a cancer risk.
The question then follows: is it worth the risk? For some, the answer is an obvious no. On the one hand, Deafness can be embraced and loved, and on the other hand, cancer is something to be destroyed, not tentatively invited in. Both hands say no. But some might say with vigilance and continued research, the rewards outweigh the risk. The other options just aren’t good enough.
If you want my verdict, I’ll have to disappoint you and say I need to see more research and more development before I can definitely offer my support or opposition. And stem cell research is a whole matter for discussion. If I had to decide today if I was willing to take the risk, I would say no. But it is exciting to consider a future where I could be convinced otherwise.
Zhichao Song, Azadeh Jadali, Bernd Fritzsch, Kelvin Y. Kwan. NEUROG1 Regulates CDK2 to Promote Proliferation in Otic Progenitors. Stem Cell Reports, 2017; DOI: 10.1016/j.stemcr.2017.09.011
While hearing aid and cochlear implant developers work tirelessly to fix their technology, researchers have recently focused in on the sensation that’s sweeping the scientific nation: stem cells. In theory, stem cells could be the fix for pretty much everything. What could be better than the ability to inject a few cells into a person and allow his or her own body to take care of the rest? There would be no complications with noncompliant technology or rejection of foreign objects. Perfecting stem cell medicine would be the equivalent of perfecting self-healing, a power that not so long ago was thought to belong only in fantasy movies.
The article “NEUROG1 Regulates CDK2 to Promote Proliferation in Otic Progenitors” addresses the idea of using stem cells to regulate hair cell regeneration. Perhaps the most widespread form of hearing loss is hair cell deterioration, the natural effect of living in a world that produces all kinds of sounds at all levels of volume, all the time. If stem cells could be used to reverse this, it could change everything. The inconvenience of slight hearing loss in young people who work in loud environments would be gone. Older people would no longer have to relearn how to process the world after finally agreeing to get hearing aids. A large percentage of the world’s hearing loss would be reversible to the point of extinction. To get the details of the article, you can access it the usual ways (the Cited Articles menu or the bottom of this post). I would encourage you to check it out.
This research seems so ideal, but of course as we delve deeper we can begin to see a problem. Cell reproduction seems like a good concept when we are talking about cells that are dead, damaged, or missing, but proliferation can easily creep in as a destructive force. What starts as an inspired attempt at restoration can quickly and easily become a cancer risk.
The question then follows: is it worth the risk? For some, the answer is an obvious no. On the one hand, Deafness can be embraced and loved, and on the other hand, cancer is something to be destroyed, not tentatively invited in. Both hands say no. But some might say with vigilance and continued research, the rewards outweigh the risk. The other options just aren’t good enough.
If you want my verdict, I’ll have to disappoint you and say I need to see more research and more development before I can definitely offer my support or opposition. And stem cell research is a whole matter for discussion. If I had to decide today if I was willing to take the risk, I would say no. But it is exciting to consider a future where I could be convinced otherwise.
Zhichao Song, Azadeh Jadali, Bernd Fritzsch, Kelvin Y. Kwan. NEUROG1 Regulates CDK2 to Promote Proliferation in Otic Progenitors. Stem Cell Reports, 2017; DOI: 10.1016/j.stemcr.2017.09.011
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