This innovation is intended for people who have lost their noses due to an accident or cancer. Until now, surgeons had to extract cartilage from patients’ ribs to create a new nose, which might lead to long-term health issuesbecause the cartilage was less flexible and more brittle than that which makes up the natural nose.
To solve this problem, experts from Swansea University have created a cartilage from “nanocellulose hydrogel” and “hyaluronic acid”both of which arenatural origin and vegan. The resulting cartilage is 10 times more flexible than natural cartilage and can be 3D printed to achieve the exact shape required to fit the patient’s face (source 1).
“The nanocellulose hydrogel is actually soft wood pulp. As for hyaluronic acid, which is found in many skin creams and facial fillers, it is produced from bacteria. A biological catalyst is added to the mixture so that it “hardens”, in the same way as epoxy resin, following being 3D printed,” explains Thomas Jovic.
Then, cartilage cells from the patient’s body are taken, multiplied in the laboratory and placed in a solution. The artificial cartilage is then bathed in this cellular solution, which allows the cells to colonize the structure and stiffen it before it was surgically implanted. This technique saves patients from undergoing painful surgery to extract the cartilage from their ribs.