Application of Tissue Engineering and Biomaterials in Nose Surgery

Surgery of the nose involves a series of operations that are directed at restoring the nasal anatomy and physiology. The extent or degree of reconstruction needed is dependent on the appearance-based requirement of the patients and the procedure exploited for the correction such that nasal airflow is preserved. Standard surgical approach includes the use of autologous tissue or implantation alloplastic bio or synthetic/fabricated construct materials to correct the defects. Over the years, tissue engineering has been proven to be a promising technique for reconstructing tissue and organ defects, including the nose. Recently, there has been keen interest in fabricating new tissues and organ scaffolds using 3D printing technology with good control over the micro-architecture and excellent interior architecture suitable for cell seeding. Unviability of the tissue and harvest-associated complications have increased the need for the investigation of tissue engineering based methods for nasal reconstruction using biomaterials, stem cells, and growth factors combined with 3D bioprinting. However, there are only a handful of studies vis-à-vis the application of cartilage tissue engineering, stem cells, and growth factors for the purpose. This review provides highlights about the available studies based on the application of stem cells, biomaterials, and growth factors for nasal reconstruction surgery, as there is limited recent information on the use of these entities in nasal surgeries.