Tissue engineering of human nasal alar cartilage precisely by using three-dimensional printing

Tissue engineering strategies hold promise for the restoration of damaged cartilage. However, the results of most studies report irregularly shaped beads of cartilage, which are not precise enough. Thus, a precise shape of cartilage graft must be taken into consideration. The goal of this study was to develop a simple method of creating a precisely predetermined nasal alar shape with the aid of three-dimensional printing.

Lower lateral cartilage from cadavers was observed and scanned by computed tomography. Molds of the lower lateral cartilage were achieved by using three-dimensional printing. Human nasal cartilage was obtained and chondrocytes were harvested. Then, the mixture of cells and poly(glycolic acid)/poly-L-lactic acid was cultured in vitro and implanted into the subcutaneous tissue of nude mice.

After subcutaneous implantation, the length and width of the samples were measured, and the results were not statistically significantly different from the native lower lateral cartilage (p > 0.05). Their thickness was measured and the results were statistically different from the native lower lateral cartilage (p < 0.05). Histologic examination of the engineered constructs revealed that both the cell and tissue morphologic features of engineered cartilage were similar to those of native lower lateral cartilage. The biomechanical properties of the engineered cartilage exceeded those of native cartilage.

This study demonstrates that three-dimensional printing-aided tissue engineering can achieve precise three-dimensional shapes of human nasal alar cartilage. To our knowledge, this is the first reported creation of a precise nasal alar cartilage with a tissue-engineering strategy and three-dimensional printing technique.