Tissue engineering by cocultivating human elastic chondrocytes and keratinocytes

To date, there is no optimal way to reconstruct an external ear in cases of microtia or after trauma or burns damaging the external ear. However, success in the area of tissue engineering has indicated that autologous elastic cartilage produced in vitro might be of great importance in the future treatment of these patients. In the present study we have engineered human, elastic cartilage in vitro by culturing chondrocytes in fibrin glue. Furthermore, the engineered elastic cartilage was seeded with human keratinocytes to investigate the possibility of combining these two tissues into one integrated structure. Histological analysis and immunohistochemistry were done every second week for 10 weeks. The elastic chondrocytes were shown to grow well in the matrix and proliferated in a dense pattern. After 10 weeks a matrix containing elastin was shown by staining with orcein, indicating that an elastic cartilage had been formed. The seeded keratinocytes adhered to the cartilage, proliferated, and formed a stratified epidermal layer, which was shown by routine histological staining and immunohistochemistry. This study shows that human elastic chondrocytes can be cultured in fibrin glue and that human keratinocytes can be cocultured with this engineered cartilage, which might be of great importance in future reconstruction of ears.