Human stem cells restore hearing in gerbil study, page 1

NEW YORK (AP) — For the first time, scientists have improved hearing in deaf animals by using human embryonic stem cells, an encouraging step for someday treating people with certain hearing disorders.

"It's a dynamite study (and) a significant leap forward," said one expert familiar with the work, Dr. Lawrence Lustig of the University of California, San Francisco...

The experiment involved an uncommon form of deafness, one that affects fewer than 1 percent to perhaps 15 percent of hearing-impaired people. And the treatment wouldn't necessarily apply to all cases of that disorder. Scientists hope the approach can be expanded to help with more common forms of deafness. But in any case, it will be years before human patients might benefit...

Yehoash Raphael of the University of Michigan, who didn't participate in the work, said it's possible the stem cell transplants worked by stimulating the gerbils' own few remaining nerve cells, rather than creating new ones. But either way, "this is a big step forward in use of stem cells for treating deafness," he said...

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I will defer from my customary verbosity to simply say "Why are we not making more of this branch of science???"

It's a shame that archaic superstitions are keeping us from tapping what might well be the single most important branch of health science to emerge in nearly a century.

A conspiracy against progress? A shame.

~Heff

edit on 9/13/12 by Hefficide because: (no reason given)