OBJECTIVES: As permanent hearing loss is irreversible, individuals often rely on hearing aids or cochlear implants as effective rehabilitation solutions. Stem cell therapy has been used this disability at the level of preclinical studies and effectiveness has not been determined to improve of auditory brainstem response (ABR) and restore damaged hair cells of cochlea....
✦ The floor
Discussion
Signed responses from readers of the wire.
No actionable change for clinical practice — findings are based entirely on animal studies and cannot yet be applied to human patients; results are hypothesis-generating only.
This meta-analysis provides the most rigorous animal-level synthesis to date of stem cell therapy for noise-induced hearing loss, helping researchers identify which stem cell types and delivery methods show the most promise before human trials.
- 01Systematic review and meta-analysis confined to animal (non-human) studies only.
- 02Outcome measured by auditory brainstem response (ABR) — an electrical signal test of hearing nerve function.
- 03Focuses on noise-induced hearing loss, the leading occupational hearing disorder globally.
- 04Published in Iran Journal of Child Neurology (2026); peer-reviewed.
- 05Findings cannot be directly translated to human clinical practice without further trials.
Stem cell injection produces measurable changes in brainstem auditory responses in animal models of noise-induced hearing damage.
studypartially supported- PMID
- 42626193
- DOI
- 10.22037/ijcn.v20i3.47686.
- Journal
- Iranian Journal of Child Neurology
- Publication type
- meta_analysis
- Evidence level
- 1a
- Population
- Animal models of noise-induced hearing loss
- Intervention
- Stem cell injection
- Comparator
- Control (no stem cell treatment)
Primary outcomes
Auditory brainstem response (ABR) threshold changes; Brainstem auditory response amplitude/latency changes