Leading experts among 3D printing manufacturers and regenerative medicine company 3DBio Therapeutics have successfully performed a clinical trial of transplanting a 20-year-old female's ear utilizing a 3D-printed iteration made from the same female's cells.
The doctors involved relayed key details surrounding the trial amid a press release, yet had to refrain from fully unearthing all of the secrets behind their efforts with the so-called AuriNovo ear due to proprietary concerns.
The woman treated with the 3D-printed ear implant suffered from a rare genetic birth deformity, called microtia, which either causes one or both ears to not grow at all or grow in an underdeveloped manner.
Nearly 1,500 US children are born with the condition, thus spurring 3DBio Therapeutics to enact a clinical trial involving so far a total of 11 participants with their AuriNovo ear implant.
The 3D printed ear implant relies on the client's own tissue to replace their deformed or missing ear. Usually, such patients suffering from microtia accept grafts taken from their ribs or alternative synthetic materials, but 3DBio Therapeutics does it vastly differently, as the tissue engineering and regenerative medicine company instead opts to leverage the patient's cartilage cells from the existing ear following a biopsy.
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From there, the team takes the cells and grows them via 3D printing technology, shaping the newly-formed product into the patient's ear.
Utilizing the patient's own cells ensures that the AuriNovo ear will be less likely to be rejected from the client. Plus, over time, the new appendage will continue regenerating throughout that particular patient's life.
"This is truly a 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," says Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of 3DBio Therapeutics, Daniel Cohen, within the press release. "It is the culmination of more than seven years of our company's focused efforts to develop a uniquely differentiated technology platform meeting the FDA's requirements for therapeutic manufacturing of reconstructive implants."
Similar advancements in the fields of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine have proven to witness astounding growth, evidenced best via a heart transplant initiated in early January of this year, wherein the patient was given a pig heart as substitute for their muscular organ.
Unfortunately, the patient would later die due to a viral pig infection, but does lend credence to the potential of 3D printed heart transplants, and continued tissue engineering efforts in line with stem cell research.
The groundbreaking achievement provided via 3DBio Therapeutics was documented in a New York Times feature, wherein both doctors voiced even more information surrounding their 3D printed ear transplant.
Of those involved in the procedure, San Antonia's pediatric ear reconstructive surgeon Dr. Arturo Bonilla offered the most heartwarming of all considerations on the future of the AuriNovo project:
"This is so exciting, sometimes I have to temper myself a little bit. If everything goes as planned, this will revolutionize the way this is done."
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Written by Ryan Epps
