Technological developments that continue unabated around the world allow us to make progress in many areas. Health, which is of great importance for each of us, is one of the areas affected by these developments.
Now, a big step has been taken in health with 3D printing technologies, which have become very popular in recent years. Experts have succeeded in implanting a 3D-printed ear in a Mexican woman who has struggled with an ear problem all her life, allowing the woman to have a normal-sized ear.
Ear was obtained from the woman’s cells
The woman named Alexa, who is 20 years old, has a problem called ‘microtia’, also known as ‘absence of ears’ throughout her life. He was born with On average, it is seen in one in 10,000 births; In other words, this problem, which is stated to be quite rare, causes the ear to be deformed and appear abnormally small.
Experts wanted to take advantage of 3D printing technology for Alexa, who had to hide this ‘micro ear’ with her hair all her life, and signed an operation that will go down in history. In the news, it was reported that the ear was produced by 3D printing from the woman’s own cells and transplanted by doctors. It was also stated in the statements that this happened during the first manned experiments.
It was noted that the implant was developed by the regenerative medicine firm 3DBioTherapeutics. If we explain the process in a simple way; The cells taken from the cartilage in the woman’s ear were divided into billions of cells and sent to the 3DBio company along with a 3D scan of the healthy ear. The company combined the cells with collagen-based bio-ink and placed them on a bioprinter to print, which took 10 minutes in total. After that, the obtained ear was sent to the surgeons.
In addition, it was announced that Alexa is one of 11 volunteers aged 6-25 years participating in clinical trials, and that these people will be followed for five years to see if the transplant is safe as a result of the tests. It was also stated that since this technology is quite new, it is not certain whether the ear will be accepted by the body. However, it was also among the explanations that the creation of the ear with cells taken from the patient’s body strengthens this possibility.
3D printing, which is thought to be the first time in history with the help of living tissues, is expected to shed light on the medical world in the future. Experts think that such transplants will be completed in a few hours and may become much more common in the future. Although the ear transplant to Alexa is an operation that prints more aesthetically, scientists think that 3D printing technology can be used in the future to replicate more vital organs such as liver and kidney, and save the lives of many people.
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