Animal models of hearing loss for regeneration studies
Because of the difficulty in studying degenerative changes
in the human cochlea, a variety of animal models that
appear to reproduce aspects of the phenotype of hearing
loss have been particularly valuable.With the discovery of
some of the mutations that are responsible for hearing loss
in humans, animal models that replicate these mutations
are being created. In addition, several mouse models have
been described in which specific genes are mutated, and
these mice have provided new insights into the phenotypes
that are created by the aberrant expression of the gene.