VIDEO: Deaf gerbils 'hear again' after stem cell cure, Health and science reporter, BBC News.



UK researchers say they have taken a huge step forward in treating deafness after stem cells were used to restore hearing in animals for the first time.



Hearing partially improved when nerves in the ear, which pass sounds into the brain, were rebuilt in gerbils - a UK study in the journal Nature reports.

Getting the same improvement in people would be a shift from being unable to hear traffic to hearing a conversation. However, treating humans is still a distant prospect. Fergus Walsh reports.



However, in about one in 10 people with profound hearing loss, nerve cells which should pick up the signal are damaged. It is like dropping the baton after the first leg of a relay race... Read more http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19570024



Watch the original BBC video - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19580117