Three-dimensional ears are made from cartilage cells. These body parts were custom designed for a boy who was born with microtia, a birth defect that involves smaller ears.
It is considered a biotechnological feat because it required years of research. In fact, it is not a very common practice. In Mexico, the first three-dimensional ear transplant was performed in Latin America. Before, only one had been made, in China.
The great challenge for the researchers who developed these ears was to grow the cells correctly so that they would form the structure of the ear in a three-dimensional mold. Basically, it was about printing living cells.
“In this first stage it is an aesthetic reconstruction. And we think of it that way because we have been working on it since 2004 with many trials and impediments in between,” explains María Cristina Velasquillo, a researcher at the Luis Guillermo Ibarra Ibarra National Institute of Rehabilitation in Mexico (INR) and who was in charge of the project. .
“In the laboratory, what we do is print bioinks that contain living cells. The intention is to generate three-dimensional constructs that, eventually, when you take care of them and feed them and keep them in optimal conditions, form a mature tissue and use it as a biological model to develop drugs or personalized therapies”, comments the specialist in regenerative medicine, in a conversation with the Tecnológico de Monterrey.
The three-dimensional ears, made with biodegradable material, have the endorsement of the Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks of Mexico (Cofepris) and the Food and Drug Administration of the United States (FDA, for its acronym in English), review Sputnik.
“This material is in the process of being patented, it is biodegradable, as the cells synthesize the extracellular matrix, the material degrades until the body eliminates it,” says the researcher.
The goal with these ears goes beyond aesthetics. In the future, the specialist points out, it will be possible to use nanomaterials to reconstruct the inner ear and, in this way, contribute directly to improving the hearing of patients.
VTV/MQ/ADN