Cochlear implants and hearing aids could soon be passé for treating hearing loss. A new research shows that stem cells might be a new way to restore hearing.

A join research by Germany's Goethe-University in Frankfurt, Justus-Liebig University in Giessen, and America's Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and Harvard University and MIT have come up with a possible solution to restore hearing by using stem cells.

According to the researchers, spiral ganglion cells play an essential role in hearing. However, their irreversible degeneration is common in most types of hearing loss.

The team explained that adult spiral ganglion cells do not have the capability of regeneration, but new research on mice reveals that spiral ganglion stem cells present in the inner ear self-renew, and can be grown and developed into mature spiral ganglion cells as well as neurons and glial cells. This was described in an article in BioResearch Open Access, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers.

The study authors said the findings indicate that self-renewing properties shown by spiral ganglion stem cells make them a promising source of replacement cells for therapies designed to restore the neural structures of the inner ear.

"These findings are particularly interesting as they show that spiral ganglion stem cells can be propagated in vitro," BioResearch Open Access Editor Jane Taylor, PhD, MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine, University of Edinburgh, Scotland said in a press release. "These cells are normally poorly regenerated in the mammalian ear."

The study was published in BioResearch Open Access, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers.