Zebrafish Help Scientists Understand Hearing Restoration

Cell lineages in the inner ear: Schematic illustrating pseudotime cell ordering in the adult zebrafish inner ear. Inner ear HC lineage populations are colored according to their cluster membership and shown in pseudotime order. A regulatory network of Sox and Six transcription factors initiate a cell fate transformation during hearing regeneration in adult zebrafish

A new U.S. genomics study has found a unique set of proteins that allow Zebrafish to restore hearing after injury through the regeneration of hair cells, a finding that may pave the way to new treatments for human deafness.

While the loss of hair cells—hearing receptors in the inner ear—is irreversible in humans, many animals such as fish, amphibians, and birds can regenerate hair cells. As mammals produce hair cells during embryo formation in utero, the ear’s hair cells lost after birth are virtually irreplaceable, resulting in permanent hearing loss, deafness, or vestibular disorders.