The AudioNotch Tinnitus Treatment Blog


Stem Cells as a Tinnitus Treatment?

Written by AudioNotch Team on October 05, 2012


There are many possible avenues for a total tinnitus cure (i.e. a complete cessation of all tinnitus symptoms). We’ve posted before on the positive results of using stem cells to restore hearing following the death of cochlear hearing cells. Most people have sensorineural tinnitus induced by hearing loss, so theoretically, some of the maladpative neuroplastic changes could be undone if normal external auditory input was restored by reversing hearing loss. While the following study did not involve animals with tinnitus, researchers were able to transplant stem cells into deaf gerbils, allowing them to hear again:

Scientists have enabled deaf gerbils to hear again—with the help of transplanted cells that develop into nerves that can transmit auditory information from the ears to the brain. The advance, reported today in Nature, could be the basis for a therapy to treat various kinds of hearing loss.

In humans, deafness is most often caused by damage to inner ear hair cells—so named because they sport hairlike cilia that bend when they encounter vibrations from sound waves—or by damage to the neurons that transmit that information to the brain. When the hair cells are damaged, those associated spiral ganglion neurons often begin to degenerate from lack of use. Implants can work in place of the hair cells, but if the sensory neurons are damaged, hearing is still limited.

“Obviously the ultimate aim is to replace both cell types,” says Marcelo Rivolta of the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom, who led the new work. “But we already have cochlear implants to replace hair cells, so we decided the first priority was to start by targeting the neurons.”

This is exciting research, and more of a reason to stay positive during those difficult days with your tinnitus. In the mean time, we hope that you’ll give AudioNotch a try – although it is not a total tinnitus cure, it is a treatment that can significantly reduce the volume of your tinnitus to such low levels that the distress caused by it will be minimal or even go away entirely.

Best,
AudioNotch