Scientists believed that they have discovered a major breakthrough in the treatment of deafness. They have found a way of growing human cochlear cells to replace faulty ones. They hope that treatment could be made available to patients within 10 years.
Professor Kazusaku Kamiya, the lead researcher, said: “I am very excited by what we have done.
"We hope this work will lead to a cure for a form of hereditary deafness. “We have found a way to make cochlear stem cells.
"The next step is to find a way to safely inject them into the patient’s ear. It is possible a therapy could be available within five to 10 years.”
The work, which is being carried out in a laboratory at Juntendo University in Tokyo, Japan focuses on correcting Gap Junction Beta 2 mutation, which is responsible for deafness or hearing loss for one in a thousand children.
Professor Kamiya said that his team have engineered and grown stem cells to replace human cochlear cells without this mutation.