(ETX Daily Up) – In the United States, a 20-year-old woman suffering from an ear defect received a transplant designed using human cells and a 3D printer. This world first helps people with microtia, a congenital anomaly of the outer ear. In the future, this technology might be extended to other therapeutic areas.
On June 2, the team of Arturo Bonilla, founder and director of the Microtia-Congenital Ear Deformity Institute in the United States, performed an implant transplant from a human ear created using a 3D printer. Called AuriNovo, this implant was developed by 3DBio Therapeutics, a biotechnology company specializing in regenerative medicine.
This implant was designed to offer an alternative to people suffering from microtia, “a rare congenital malformation where one or both outer ears are absent or underdeveloped”. specifies the company in a press release. In Europe, this anomaly would affect 15 births out of approximately 100,000.
To create the prosthesis received by the 20-year-old patient, the specialists took cartilage cells from the patient before culturing them in the laboratory and mixing them with collagen hydrogel. Then, they 3D printed the result in the shape of the “healthy” ear.
An implant still in the test phase
This operation might become a less invasive alternative to the surgery usually offered to people with microtia. “I hope that AuriNovo will one day become the standard of care replacing current surgical methods of ear reconstruction requiring the removal of costal cartilage or the use of porous polyethylene (PPE) implants,” explains Arturo Bonilla.
With this technological advance, the ear should follow the growth and evolution of the transplanted person, as the founder of the Microtia-Congenital Ear Deformity Institute points out. “We also expect this will result in a more flexible ear than reconstruction with an EPI implant.”
This operation was performed as part of a clinical trial that takes place over five years in two US states, California and Texas. In total, eleven people, aged 6 to 25, with microtia, will receive an implant.
This clinical trial might also make it possible to extend this new technology to other therapeutic areas. “Our initial indications focus on cartilage in the areas of reconstructive and orthopedics, including the treatment of complex nasal malformations and spinal degeneration,” says Daniel Cohen, Founder and CEO of 3DBio Thrapeutics.
Louis Tardy