Doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London are aiming to reconstruct people’s ears using stem cells taken from their own fat.

The researchers say the technique, published in the journal Nanomedicine, could revolutionize treatment of conditions like microtia, in which the ear fails to develop properly and can be missing or malformed.

The current treatment for this condition involves extracting cartilage from a child’s ribs, which is then delicately sculpted by surgeons to resemble an ear, and finally re-implanted into the child. This technique requires multiple operations, leaves permanent scarring on the chest and the rib cartilage never recovers.

As an alternative, the team proposes that a tiny sample of fat be taken from the child and stem cells would then be extracted and grown from it. Then, an ear-shaped “scaffold” would be placed in the stem cell broth so the cells would take on the desired shape and structure. Later, chemicals would be used to persuade the stem cells to transform into cartilage cells which could be implanted beneath the skin to give the child an ear shape.

One of the researchers, Dr Patrizia Ferretti, told BBC, “It would be the Holy Grail to do this procedure through a single surgery, thereby decreasing the stress for the children and having a structure that hopefully will grow as the child grows.”

Content provided by BBC News