The tiny but mighty hair cells of the human inner ear are delicate sensory receptors. They are responsible for converting noise collected by the outer ear into electrical impulses for the brain to interpret as recognizable sound. When they die or become damaged, it results in permanent hearing loss. So far, medical science has been unable to figure out how to repair them.

While mammals are unable to regenerate hair cells when they are damaged, some invertebrates possess a repair protein capable of restoring lost function in structures similar to those found in a mammal’s inner ear. The tentacles of starlet sea anemones, for instance, are covered in tiny, hairlike cells. These receptors are responsible for detecting vibrations in the water made by nearby food or prey; much like the stereocilia of a mammal’s inner ear is responsible for detecting sound vibrations. When sea anemones reproduce, they tear themselves in half, and then repair their tentacles and hair cells using a protein found in the mucus which coats their bodies.

Dr. Glen Watson, a biologist at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and his colleagues purposely damaged hair cells in the cochleae of a group of mice to mimic traumatic hearing loss, and then treated them with a solution concocted from sea anemone protein. The hair cells recovered significantly which indicated the sea anemone protein shows promise in having repair properties for the mammalian hearing system. Upon further investigation, Dr. Watson discovered that mice produce proteins similar to the repair proteins in the sea anemone. This is good news as it suggests it may be possible someday to isolate a repair mechanism in mammals similar to that of sea anemone and use it to restore human hearing loss.

For more information, please follow this link to the article: Sea Anemone

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