Most recent studies on regeneration of inner ear hair cells focus on use of stem cells, gene therapy and neurotrophic factors. Cochlear gene therapy has been successfully used in the treatment of neurosensory hearing loss. This suggests that cochlear hair cell regeneration is possible. The objective of this paper is to review research and clinical application of inner near hair cell regeneration.
Keywords: cochlea; genes; hair cells; hearing loss; neural regeneration; neuroregeneration; re-generation; reviews; stem cells; viral vectors.