Jieyu Qi1 · Wenjuan Huang2 · Yicheng Lu1 · Xuehan Yang1 · Yinyi Zhou1 · Tian Chen1 · Xiaohan Wang1 · Yafeng Yu3 · Jia‑Qiang Sun4 · Renjie Chai1,5,6,71 State Key Laboratory of Digital Medical Engineering, Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Zhongda Hospital, School of Life Sciences and Technology, Advanced Institute for Life and Health, Jiangsu Province High-Tech Key Laboratory for Bio-Medical Research, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China
2 Hospital of Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China
3 First Afliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou 215006, China
4 Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, The First Afliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230001, China
5 Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610072, China
6 Co-Innovation Center of Neuroregeneration, Nantong University, Nantong 226001, China
7 Institute for Stem Cell and Regeneration, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing 100101, China
Abstract
Hearing loss has become increasingly prevalent and causes considerable disability, thus gravely burdening the global economy. Irreversible loss of hair cells is a main cause of sensorineural hearing loss, and currently, the only relatively effective clinical treatments are limited to digital hearing equipment like cochlear implants and hearing aids, but these are of limited benefit in patients. It is therefore urgent to understand the mechanisms of damage repair in order to develop new neuroprotective strategies. At present, how to promote the regeneration of functional hair cells is a key scientific question in the field of hearing research. Multiple signaling pathways and transcriptional factors trigger the activation of hair cell progenitors and ensure the maturation of newborn hair cells, and in this article, we first review the principal mechanisms underlying hair cell reproduction. We then further discuss therapeutic strategies involving the co-regulation of multiple signaling pathways in order to induce effective functional hair cell regeneration after degeneration, and we summarize current achievements in hair cell regeneration. Lastly, we discuss potential future approaches, such as small molecule drugs and gene therapy, which might be applied for regenerating functional hair cells in the clinic.
Keywords
Hearing loss; Cochlea; Stem cell; Hair cell regeneration
