TISSUE ENGINEERING OF AUTOLOGOUS CARTILAGE TRANSPLANTS FOR RHINOLOGY

In reconstructive surgery there is increasing demand for cartilage tra nsplants to fill defects, especially nose and/or outer ear defects. Ti ssue engineering is one of the most modern pathways to generate autolo gous cartilage transplants. Isolated chondrocytes obtained from a tiny patient's biopsy were seeded on bioresorbable preshaped cell carriers to provide a 3-dimensional cell arrangement as in vivo. The combined use of these cell carriers in farm of a non-woven mesh and a constant medium perfusion was performed to generate a cartilage-like cell-polym er-construct, which was finally subcutanously implanted in nude mice f or full maturation. After explantation of 6 months, expression of cart ilage specific extracellular matrix molecules was obvious by using his tochemical and immunohistochemical methods. These data show that tissu e engineering with isolated multiplied human chondrocytes from a tiny biopsy seeded on bioresorbable polymer is a promising system to genera te autologous cartilage transplants for replacements in reconstructive surgery.