American Society of Pediatric Otolaryngology: 3-D Printing Builds Critical Structures
Laryngotracheal stenosis is currently treated with surgical expansion and grafting, yet it remains a challenging problem. Several COSM attendees highlighted the importance of the research being conducted by Joshua R. Bedwell, MD, an otolaryngologist at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and his colleagues. Dr. Bedwell described the creation of a tissue-engineered cartilaginous trachea using bioresorbable polymer scaffolds. The investigators used three-dimensional printing to create the tubular scaffolds, which were then seeded with both chondrocytes and human mesenchymal stem cells. The researchers documented chondrogenesis after 14 days.
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July 2016They next intend to transplant the chondrocyte/scaffold complexes into an in vivo nude mouse epithelialization model in order to generate a functioning luminal respiratory epithelial lining.
Lara Pullen is a freelance medical writer based in Illinois.