Auricular Cartilage

Auricular cartilage is a specific type of cartilage containing large amounts of elastic fibers (Fig. 1) in its extracellular matrix (ECM). In contrast to hyaline and fibrocartilage, which consist mainly of collagens, these elastic fibers provide auricular cartilage with its elasticity. To be able to tissue engineer a real, natural ear, it is therefore important to replicate the natural ECM composition of auricular cartilage.

TEB aims to develop auricular grafts matching the properties of native auricular cartilage for children born with microtia. Microtia is a congenital malformation of the auricle with incidence of 1 to 4 per 10’000 births. It results in psychosocial strain such as isolation, depression and reduced self-esteem in affected children. To date, the gold standard treatment for microtia is autologous costal cartilage reconstruction. The major drawback of this technique is the need to harvest and sculpt cartilage from the 6th to 9th rib. With the use of tissue engineering and biofabrication strategies, we are able to regenerate auricular cartilage matching the histological and biomechanical properties of native tissue[1-4]. To translate these grafts into clinics and drive their industrial realization forward, we recently secured Innosuisse funding (Innovation project with implementation partner) to study the use of bioreactors and the metabolic needs of chondrocytes.