Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
ITHACA, New York — Using a 3-D printer and living cells, scientists have invented a plausible way to regrow missing or deformed ears.
Cornell biomedical engineers and medical college physicians created an artificial ear using a 3-D printer and a gel made of collagen derived from rat tails and 250 million cartilage cells from ears of cows. The development is a possible solution to a condition called microtia, a congenital deformity affecting about one in 6,000 babies. It could also be used on individuals who have lost an ear later in life due to accident, cancer or other problems.
Dr. Lawrence Bonassar, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Cornell and Dr. Jason Spector, professor of plastic surgery at Weill Cornell, first used a topological scanner and a 3-D printer to create a mirror image of a patient's normal ear.
Starting with a scan of an individual's ear, scientists converted the image into a mold, into which they injected the gel of living cells. The gel's consistency, scientists said, is that of Jell-o.
The entire process of creating the ear takes less than a week.
Scanning takes only 60 seconds. From there, scientists can design the mold in about half a day and print it in one. It takes about 30 minutes to inject the gel into the mold and 15 minutes to set. They then trim the ear of excess material and let it culture for three to five days in "nourishing cell culture media" before it is implanted.
Researchers have tested the implant on rats. Using the implant as scaffolding, the cartilage rebuilt itself at about the same rate as the collagen degraded.
Using the living cells also lessened the problem of shrinkage that other implants suffered, researchers said.
Only one other study, authors said, has demonstrated stable and long-term ear cartilage formation, but it took up to six months to form implants. Cornell's implant rebuilt itself in three months.
The researchers said the process requires some modification before it could be used on a human subject, mentioning that they would derive patient specific materials from the patient's ear remnant or bone marrow. They suggested this would decrease the likelihood of rejection.
According to Cornell, if future safety and efficacy tests go smoothly, researchers may attempt the first human implant of the bioengineered ear in about three years.
