After the researchers derived chondrocytes from the cartilage

Scientists grow new ears for children with defect

Canada Goose sale Using a combination of 3 D printing canada goose store and cultured cells, scientists in China have grown new ears for five children born with a defect in one ear called microtia, which impacts the shape and function of the ear. Canada Goose sale

canada goose deals In a first of its kind study, researchers describe how Canada Goose Outlet they collected cartilage cells called chondrocytes from the children’s microtia ears and used them to grow new ear shaped cartilage. The new cartilage was based on 3 D printed models of the children’s healthy ears. canada goose deals

buy canada goose jacket cheap Then, the researchers transferred the newly engineered ears to the children and performed ear reconstruction, according to a study published this month in the journal EBioMedicine. buy canada goose jacket cheap

“We were able to successfully design, fabricate, and regenerate canada goose patient specific external ears,” the researchers wrote in their study, which followed each child for up to 2 years.

canada goose coats on sale “Nevertheless, further efforts remain necessary to eventually translate this prototype work into routine clinical practices,” canadian goose jacket they wrote. “In the future, long term (up to 5 years) follow up of the cartilage properties and clinical outcomes. will be essential.” canada goose coats on sale

canadian goose jacket Microtia is a condition in which a child is canada goose uk shop born with structural abnormalities or even the complete absence of the ear, which can result in hearing impairment. canadian goose jacket

Canada Goose Outlet The condition is estimated to occur in about one in every 5,000 live births, depending on ethnic background. The prevalence of microtia is higher in Hispanic, Asian, Native American and Andean populations. Canada Goose Outlet

Canada Goose online Typically, microtia treatment options Canada Goose Outlet include reconstructive surgery involving various approaches, such as sculpting an artificial “plastic ear” that attaches to the body or using the patient’s rib cartilage to create an ear. Canada Goose online

“The delivery of shaped cartilage for the reconstruction of microtia has been a goal of the tissue engineering community for more than two decades,” said Lawrence Bonassar, a professor of biomedical engineering Canada Goose sale and mechanical and aerospace engineering at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, who was not involved in the new study but separately has studied 3 D printed ears in microtia patients.

canada goose clearance sale “This work clearly shows canada goose coats on sale tissue engineering approaches for reconstruction of the Canada Goose online ear and other cartilaginous tissues will become a clinical reality very soon,” he said of the new study. “The aesthetics of the tissue produced are uk canada goose on par with what can be expected of the best clinical procedures at the present time.” canada goose clearance sale

Canada Goose Jackets ‘The concept is not novel’ Canada Goose Jackets

The approach featured in the new study has been around as canada goose clearance an idea for a while, said Dr. Tessa Hadlock, chief of facial plastic and reconstructive surgery at cheap canada goose uk Massachusetts Eye and Ear in Boston, who was not involved in the new research.

In 1997, for instance, researchers grew tissue engineered cartilage in the shape of a human ear using chondrocytes and then implanted uk canada goose outlet them on the backs of mice.

canada goose coats “Surgeons have been toying with the idea of removing cartilage canada goose coats tissue from a patient and distilling that tissue into individual cellular components and then expanding those cellular components. In other words, having the cells divide so you have a bigger piece or more cells to make a new part with,” Hadlock said. canada goose coats

canada goose store “For many years, we have tried to harvest cells from people and expand buy canada goose jacket cheap those cells on polymer to grow canada goose factory sale kind of a new structure, and we’ve done it in animals for a long time, and it also was FDA approved for some studies here in the United States where we were trying to fix problems with the bladder in a condition called vesicoureteral reflux.” canada goose store

So, “the concept is not novel,” Hadlock said.

canada goose black friday sale As for the new study, “the thing that is novel about this cheap Canada Goose is that for the first time, they have done it in a series of five patients, and they have good canada goose uk outlet long term followup that shows the results of the ears that were grown from that harvested cartilage,” she said. canada goose black friday sale

canada goose clearance https://www.canadagoosejackets7v.com The study involved a 6 year old girl, a 9 year old girl, an 8 year old girl, a 7 year old boy and a 7 year old girl, all with unilateral microtia. canada goose clearance

Canada Goose Parka The researchers used CT scanning and 3 D printing to build a biodegradable scaffold that replicated the exact 3 D structure of each patient’s healthy ear. After the researchers derived chondrocytes from the cartilage in each patient’s microtia ear, those cells were seeded onto the scaffold and cultured for three months. Canada Goose Parka

Next, once canada goose uk black friday the cartilage frameworks were generated with each patient’s specific ear shape, they were implanted to reconstruct ears in the five patients. Each patient was monitored for various amounts of time after implantation, with the longest follow up being 2 years.

buy canada goose jacket Of all of the cases, four showed obvious cartilage formation by six months after the new ear implantation, the researchers found, and among three of the patients, the shape, size and angle of the new ear all matched the other ear, which was healthy. buy canada goose jacket

The new ears stayed intact as the researchers followed up with the children after surgery, but two of the cases showed slight distortion after surgery, the researchers said.

canada goose The researchers described their results as “a significant breakthrough” in the clinical application of engineering human Canada Goose Jackets ear shaped cartilage, but the approach comes with several limitations. canada goose

cheap Canada Goose “The part about this work that is dangerous is when canada goose black friday sale you remove cells from someone’s body and you grow them in culture, you have to apply stimulating compounds to the cells to get them Canada Goose Coats On Sale to divide,” Hadlock said. cheap Canada Goose

“When you apply those stimulating compounds, you are running the risk of allowing those Canada Goose Online cells to go canada goose clearance sale haywire from a division standpoint. It’s another way of saying that you can actually create like a cancerous type of uncontrolled growth,” she said. “In the United States, we have been Canada Goose Parka extremely wary of doing that.”

Another limitation relates to how the researchers used the children’s own chondrocytes, the cartilage cells within their ears, even though their ears had been diagnosed with microtia, Hadlock added.

“Because the ear is not normal, they in and of themselves may be diseased. They may be buy canada goose jacket different than a totally healthy chondrocyte,” Hadlock said. “That’s something about which we don’t have enough information.”

Many challenges remain

More research is needed before the approach described in the new study could be widely used among microtia patients in a clinical setting.