Doctors have successfully transplanted a 3D-printed ear made from human cells onto the face of a 20-year-old woman who was born with a misshapen ear, a notable breakthrough in tissue engineering with the first-of-its-kind procedure.
3DBio Therapeutics, a medical company specializing in the manufacture of 3D-bioprinted tissue, developed the makeshift ear by printing it in the exact shape of the patient’s left ear after a surgeon took half of a gram of cartilage from the woman’s microtia ear remnant. Doctors surgically implanted it underneath the skin just above her jawbone, according to the New York Times. The new ear, transplanted in March, will continue to regenerate cartilage to give the look and feel of a natural ear, the New York-based company said.
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“This is a truly historic moment for patients with microtia, and more broadly, for the regenerative medicine field as we are beginning to demonstrate the real-world application of next-generation tissue engineering technology,” said Daniel Cohen, CEO of 3DBio. “We look forward to leveraging our platform to solve other high impact, unmet medical needs like lumpectomy reconstruction and eventually expand to organs.”
The scientific breakthrough comes after seven years of development and marks a signal of hope to surgeons who seek to improve organ and tissue transplants. Although the clinical trial poses risks such as health complications, doctors say the new ear is unlikely to be rejected by a patient’s body because the cell tissue is their own.
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Other companies have experimented with 3D-printing prosthetic limbs made of plastic and other lightweight materials for patients, but the ear transplant is the first known surgery to transplant 3D-printed tissue made from human cells. The company hopes to build on its success by expanding its capabilities to print other replacement body parts, eventually creating organs such as livers or kidneys.
Roughly 1,500 babies are born in the United States each year with either microtia or anotia, rare conditions that cause one’s external ear to be missing, according to the American Journal of Medical Genetics. 3DBio’s clinical trial is working to transplant ears onto 11 volunteers who will be monitored for five years to ensure safety and aesthetic outcomes.
