Three-dimensional printing of auricles is getting closer to the clinic
The human ear was created using a 3D printer
Copper news
American scientists have created an ear shell, identical in shape to the patient's shell, using a 3D printer, reports The Telegraph (Scientists create artificial ear using 3D printing and living-cell gels).
The results of the work of researchers from Cornell University College of Medicine (Cornell University) are published in the journal PLoS ONE (Reiffel et al., High-Fidelity Tissue Engineering of Patient-Specific Auricles for Reconstruction of Pediatric Microtia and Other Auricular Deformities).
The development of American researchers is designed to help children suffering from congenital underdevelopment (microtia) or the absence (anotia) of auricles. Subsequently, according to scientists, with the help of the technology developed by them, it will be possible to grow ears for adults who have suffered as a result of an accident or an attack by criminals.
To grow an ear identical to the patient's ear, scientists modeled it in a special computer program. The model for them was the ear of a five-year-old girl.
The simulated auricle was "printed out" on a 3D printer, receiving a mold for filling made of polymer materials.
In the next step, the researchers filled a 3D mold with a gel that contains collagen and cow chondrocytes (cartilage tissue cells). After that, the future ear is left to "grow up" for a few days, and then it can be transplanted to the patient.
The quality of the artificially grown implant was proved by the authors of the work during experiments on mice. Unlike the auricles that do not contain cellular material, the ears made with the help of 3D technologies did not deform over time and perfectly took root in rodents. Three months after the transplant, normal cartilage tissue grew in the artificial shell.
The authors hope that within three years they will be able to introduce their technology into clinical practice.
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22.02.2013