Five patients in Switzerland have become the first to get new noses grown in the laboratory, it was announced today.
The organs were made from cartilage grown from the patient’s own cells in a laboratory at the University of Basel.
The patients were aged between 76 and 88 and had been treated for skin cancer on their noses.
Reporting in The Lancet, doctors say the patients were happy with the appearances of their new noses and their ability to breathe.
The laboratory technique used multiplied grafts of cartilage by some 40 times. These were shaped to fit the missing cartilage on the patients’ noses.
Professor Ivan Martin, professor of tissue engineering at the university, said: "The method opens the way to using engineered cartilage for more challenging reconstructions in facial surgery such as the complete nose, eyelid or ear.
“The engineered cartilage had clinical results comparable to the current standard surgery. This new technique could help the body to accept the new tissue better and to improve the stability and functionality of the nostril."
He added: "The same engineered grafts are currently being tested in a parallel study for articular cartilage repair in the knee."
Engineered autologous cartilage tissue for nasal reconstruction after tumour resection: an observational first-in-human trial. Lancet 11 April 2014 [abstract]
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