Doctors give woman 3D printed ear constructed from her own cells
A WOMAN has received a 3D printed ear made from her own cells, in a scientific development that could “revolutionise” medicine.
A rare birth defect called microtia, which affects around 80 babies a year in the UK and 1,500 in the United States, left the 20-year-old Mexican woman with a small, misshapen right ear until the reconstructive surgery in America in March. It was part of the first clinical trial to use a 3D printer to make an implant from living tissue.
“This is so exciting, sometimes I have to temper myself a little bit,” Dr Arturo Bonilla, who performed the surgery in Texas, told The New York Times.
“If everything goes as planned, this will revolutionise the way this is done.”
The implant was produced by 3Dbio Therapeutics, a regenerative medicine company based in New York, which announced the procedure yesterday.
The results will be published in a medical journal when a trial that includes 11 volunteers is complete.
The new organ was made from a tiny clump of cells taken from the woman’s ear, which experts say will reduce the chance of the implant being rejected.
It will continue to generate cartilage, so will eventually feel and look like a natural ear.
It is thought to be the first time that a 3D printed implant made from living tissues has been transplanted. The company said that, with more research, the same technology could be used to make spinal discs, noses and knee menisci and reconstructive breast tissue.
“It’s definitely a big deal,” said Adam Feinberg, a professor of biomedical engineering and materials science and engineering at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who is not involved in the trial.
“It shows this technology is not an ‘if ’ any more, but a ‘when’,” he added.
Before the breakthrough, surgery to reconstruct the ears of those suffering from microtia, which involves taking cartilage from a patient’s ribs that is then carved into the rough shape of an ear. Now “surgeons won’t have to go into the chest” and patients will heal in a day, Dr Bonilla added.