Tissue Engineering

The Future of Ear Reconstruction:

Several technologies come together in tissue engineering. Large-scale culturing of human cells—including skin, muscle, cartilage, bone, marrow and stem cells—may provide substitutes to replace damaged components in humans. Naturally derived or synthetic materials may be fashioned into frameworks that when implanted in the body provide a structure that allows the body’s own cells to grow and form new tissues while the implanted framework is gradually absorbed.

Tissue engineering is the use of a combination of cells, engineering and materials methods, biochemical and physiochemical factors to improve or replace functional replacement tissue. Serious attempts at tissue engineering began in the early 1980s. Cartilage, being avascular (not associated with or supplied by blood vessels) with its modest nutritional requirements, was an ideal medium to begin work in this arena. This quickly led to applications in microtia repair.

Ongoing work with human cartilage cells continues and one day might represent the standard of care in microtia repair. Maintenance of cartilage integrity with time and thus preserving a precise and delicate outer ear architecture, remains the most significant hurdle to overcome before this technology is clinically feasible.

Among the major challenges now facing tissue engineering is the need for more complex functionality in laboratory-grown tissues destined for transplantation. The continued success of tissue engineering, and the eventual development of true human replacement parts, will grow from the convergence of engineering and basic research advances in tissue, stem cell, and developmental biology.