Why can’t hearing cells regenerate? Since it seems like virtually every other cell can.
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Relatively few cells can regenerate. Our bodies crudely plug most areas of destroyed tissue with what we know as scar tissue. But a scar on your arm or whatever isn’t the same as skin (no hair, glands, or etc.) and it isn’t made of the same cells (keratinocytes, melanocytes, etc..) as much of the rest of our epidermis. Ditto for most damage elsewhere. A heart attack that kills heart cells will mean that area of the heart becomes permanently non-functional. Brain cells killed by a stroke are gone forever. Etc..
For our cells to regenerate they usually need associated stem cells. So for a topical example, COVID infections can kill our olfactory neurons. Normally, neurons don’t regenerate, but in this one case our body is configured such that we do have stem cells in the relevant tissue to allow regeneration. So the loss of smell/taste from infection is temporary until the neurons regenerate. The liver is another organ that is capable of regeneration.
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