Hair Cell and Spiral Ganglion Neuron Regeneration: Mechanisms, Cure and Future Prospects

Dear Colleagues,

Hearing loss is considered to be the most common sensory disorder in the human population, which occurs at all ages world-wide, and sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) is the most common type of hearing loss. Various insults could induce SNHL, including acoustic trauma, ear and brain tumors, aging, noise exposure, or ototoxic medications or chemicals. SNHL is caused by the irreversible loss of sensory hair cell and the degeneration of spiral ganglion neurons. SNHL is not yet curable because of the irreversible death of hair cells and the degeneration of spiral ganglion neurons in the cochlea. Recent years, exciting animal studies on signaling pathway manipulation, gene therapy, and stem cell transplantation, as well as pharmaceutical agents, demonstrated that hair cells and spiral ganglion neurons could be regenerated, and indicated that hearing loss might eventually be curable in the future. Neural plasticity is the key feature for spiral ganglion neurons and hair cells, and is especially important for the new regenerated spiral ganglion neurons and hair cells. This Special Issue will focus on recent advances in re-establishing the neural plasticity of regenerated spiral ganglion neurons and sensory hair cells.

In this Special Issue, we invite authors to submit high-quality original research articles and reviews. Researchers and clinicians are encouraged to submit their work, including both basic and translational research.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Signaling mechanisms
• Cytoskeletal regulation
• Hair cell regeneration
• Spiral ganglion neuron regeneration
• Spiral ganglion neuron refinement and retraction
• Spiral ganglion neuron neurites pruning
• Application of biomaterials for improving the plasticity of spiral ganglion neuron
• Ribbon synapse plasticity
• Noise and drug induced changes in hair cell and spiral ganglion neuron plasticity
• Genetic aspects regulating the plasticity
• Gene therapy of hearing loss
• The application of biomaterials in regeneration
• Inner ear progenitors and mini organ formation

Prof. Dr. Renjie Chai
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Otorhinolaryngology, Hearing and Balance Medicine is an international peer-reviewed open access semiannually journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Signaling mechanisms
• Cytoskeletal regulation
• Hair cell regeneration
• Spiral ganglion neuron regeneration
• Spiral ganglion neuron refinement and retraction
• Spiral ganglion neuron neurites pruning
• Application of biomaterials for improving the plasticity of spiral ganglion neuron
• Ribbon synapse plasticity
• Noise- and drug-induced changes in hair cell and spiral ganglion neuron plasticity
• Genetic aspects regulating the plasticity
• Gene therapy of hearing loss
• The application of biomaterials in regeneration
• Inner ear progenitors and mini organ formation