Regenerative medicine of tissue engineering： auricular cartilage regeneration and functional reconstruction

Abstract

Summary Deformity of the auricle can result from congenital defects, oncologic resection, or traumatic injury. Current clinical strategy is to utilize autologous costal cartilage for reconstructing auricular scaffolds with long-term stability. However, this method is limited by donor-site morbidity, a complex surgical sculpting process, and differing mechanical properties compared to elastic auricular cartilage. Alternatively, alloplastic implants can offer precise shape and avoid donor-site surgery, but suffer from poor biocompatibility and high rates of infection and extrusion. A tissue engineering approach to auricular reconstructions would overcome the limitations of both autologous and alloplastic transplants. In this review we focus on tissue engineering auricular cartilage reconstruction, including auricular seed cells culture and their differentiated control strategy, scaffolds choices and design technique. Many studies found that auricular chondrocytes were the most suitable seed cells to fabricate elastic cartilage; progenitor cells from auricular cartilage could differentiate into elastic chondrocytes, and other types of chondrocytes had its limitation because of the final ossification. Many types of growth factors had the differing potential ability for accelerating chondrocytes growth, differentiation, or maintaining chondrocytes phenotype. Recent advances in tissue engineering auricular cartilage, including several clinic applications, implied that tissue engineering auricules would become a hopefully potential soulution for the future of auricular reconstruction.