Marine Biological Laboratory researchers said their discovery might lead to cures for hearing loss, tinnitus and balance problems.

MBL investigators Zhengqing Hu and Professor Jeffrey Corwin, both from the University of Virginia's School of Medicine, developed a technique for isolating cells from the inner ears of chicken embryos and growing them in their laboratory. The scientists achieved their results by inducing avian cells to differentiate into hair cells via a process known as mesenchymal-to-epithelial transition.

Hu and Corwin were able to freeze and thaw the cultured cells, then grow new cells from the thawed cultures -- a discovery that will make hair cells accessible to more researchers.

"Until now, scientists working to understand many inner ear disorders had to resort to difficult microdissections to gather even small numbers of these cells, which limited the types of research that could be pursued and slowed the pace of discoveries," said Corwin.

The study is reported in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.