Sounds Like Stress

I am sure we've all been there. Swamped under at work. Juggling too many projects. Feeling completely stressed. Well, the job of our auditory cells is a little similar. Our ability to hear is an energy-intensive process which exposes our auditory neurons and the hair cells in our ears under a certain type of stress; oxidative stress. These cells are hypersensitive to stress and exposure can quickly lead to cell death and as a result, hearing loss. So what stops us all losing our hearing much quicker? A protein called CHD7. By deleting the gene that encodes it in mice and removing the protection, hair cells (shown in pink and green) rapidly die off (right) compared to mice that have CHD7 (left). Individuals with CHARGE syndrome often suffer from hearing loss because they lack this shielding protein, so hearing loss could be an early indicator for such conditions.

Written by Sophie Arthur

Sophie Arthur

former Science Communications Officer MRC LMS

Formerly a stem cell biologist, Sophie has since moved into science communication working at the MRC LMS. She also writes an award winning science and education blog Soph talks science.

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• Image adapted from work by Mohi Ahmed and colleagues
• Centre for Craniofacial and Regenerative Biology, Guy’s Hospital, King’s College London, UK
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in Communications Biology, November 2021