Fluorescence microscopic image of a murine cochlea: the hair cells are marked in green, the cell skeleton in red and the cell nuclei with genetic material in blue. (Image: Maurizio Cortada, University of Basel, Department of Biomedicine)
Fluorescence microscopic image of a murine cochlea: the hair cells are marked in green, the cell skeleton in red and the cell nuclei with genetic material in blue. (Image: Maurizio Cortada, University of Basel, Department of Biomedicine) As we age, many of us will eventually need hearing aids. In some cases, the reason for this may be a signaling pathway that controls auditory sensory cell function and is downregulated with age. Researchers at the University of Basel are uncovering clues. Hearing loss eventually affects almost everyone: Loud noises or simple aging gradually cause the auditory sensory cells and their synapses in the inner ear to degenerate and die off. The only treatment option is a hearing aid or, in extreme cases, a cochlear implant. "In order to develop new therapies, we need to better understand what the auditory sensory cells need for proper function," explains Dr. Maurizio Cortada from the Department of Biomedicine at the University of Basel and University Hospital Basel.
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