Woman’s ear rebuilt with 3D-printed living tissue implant
A woman has had her external ear reconstructed using a 3D-printed living tissue implant in what appears to be the first trial of its kind, according to reports.
The technology has been developed for people with microtia, a rare congenital condition in which one or both outer ears are absent or incompletely formed.
According to the New York Times, the transplant was carried out in the US in March on a 20-year-old woman from Mexico who was born with a small and misshapen right ear.
The company behind the implants, 3DBio Therapeutics, announced the reconstruction but in-depth details of the implant and procedure were unavailable for immediate scrutiny.
The company said the implant was composed of a 3D-printed collagen hydrogel scaffold with the patient’s own cartilage cells. “The construct is printed in a size and shape matching the patient’s opposite ear for implantation,” the press release says.
It is hoped that 11 patients with unilateral microtia will be enrolled into the clinical trial, conducted in Los Angeles, California, and San Antonio, Texas, according to the company, and the findings will be published in a medical journal.
Dr Arturo Bonilla, the surgeon who performed the procedure, said: “As a physician who has treated thousands of children with microtia from across the country and around the world, I am inspired by what this technology may mean for microtia patients and their families. This study will allow us to investigate the safety and aesthetic properties of this new procedure for ear reconstruction using the patient’s own cartilage cells.”
Bonilla said the approach could replace current techniques for reconstruction of the outer ear that involve taking cartilage from patients’ ribs, a more invasive procedure, or the use of porous polyethylene (PPE) implants, with ears reconstructed using the new implant thought to be more flexible.
While long-term follow-up of those receiving the implants is needed, Dr Daniel Cohen, 3DBio’s chief executive, described the real-world application of the technology as “a truly historic moment”. He said he hoped the clinical trial could have potential beyond microtia.
“Our initial indications focus on cartilage in the reconstructive and orthopedic fields including treating complex nasal defects and spinal degeneration,” he said. “We look forward to leveraging our platform to solve other highimpact, unmet medical needs like lumpectomy reconstruction and eventually expand to organs.”
Prof Anthony Atala, the director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, in the US, who was not involved in the research, said the cartilage of the outer ear helped to funnel sound into the middle and inner ear, which manages the sound processing, and is also important cosmetically.
Atala said it was not the first time tissue engineered ears, made with the patient’s own cells, had been implanted in humans. An implant made from such cells cultured on a polymer scaffold has previously been reported in China.
But Atala said: “This is an important advance for the regenerative medicine field. 3D printing aims to provide a number of advantages over handmade engineered tissues, including scale-up, higher design precision and decreased costs.”
Adam Perriman, a professor of bioengineering at the University of Bristol, whose work includes developing techniques for 3D cell printing, also welcomed the news. “As the structure of the ear is cartilage and is avascular – [in other words it has] no blood vessels – it is easier than bioprinting more complex tissues [or] organs, which is still a way off,” he said. “That being said, it is an exciting prospect, as there are still few examples of tissue engineered products or procedures.”