Novel decellularized animal conchal cartilage graft for application in human patient

Abstract

Restoration of the external ear and nose in human patients, in either congenital deformity or acquired defects, is a challenge in reconstructive surgery. Optimization of the currently available materials is necessary for rhinoplasty and microtia correction to avoid intraoperative manoeuvring and early rejection. The aim of this study was to develop cross-linked decellularized caprine conchal cartilages as biocompatible, robust, and non-toxic matrix template. The characterization of the decellularized tissue encompasses in vitro lymphoproliferation assay, cytotoxicity test, agar gel precipitation test, in vivo immunocompatibility study, histology, and determination of pro-inflammatory cytokines in animal model. Decellularized cartilage was implanted in human volunteer at R. G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata, India, and samples were assessed histologically by retrieving those after 4 months. The processed cartilages were implanted in rhinoplasty (nine) and microtia patients (six) keeping autogenous cartilage graft as control up to 18 months after surgery. Primary outcomes were viability and safety of the material, both in animal model and human pre-application in actual site. Secondary outcomes included self-assessed clinical findings on gross examination. This study is under the ethical approval no. RKC/14 dated January 27, 2012. The in vitro cellular reactivity was less in processed cartilage protein than control. Histology of retrieved tissues in animal model and human volunteer showed no adverse reactions. Production of IL-2, IL-6, and TNF-α cytokines was lower at 4 weeks. The rhinoplasty and microtia operation in clinical patients utilizing the processed cartilage showed satisfactory recovery with improved facial look. These low cost, easily available, biocompatible, safe xenocartilage biomatrices of caprine conchal cartilage origin are very flexible in shape and size, enabling them as potential bioimplant for repair of nasal and auricular structure without any rejection or diverse biomedical applications.

Development and Characterization of Acellular Caprine Choncal Cartilage Matrix for Tissue Engineering Applications

“…Similarly, cell cytotoxicity results indicated reduced or very less toxic effects of decellularized cartilages, whereas native cartilage extracts showed higher toxicity level quite similar to DMSO (2% and 4%, respectively). This contrasting outcome was well expected quite similar to our previous work 41 as after cellular loss, the structural part of cartilage becomes unresponsive and inert to the surrounding atmosphere.…”

Fish cartilage: A promising source of biomaterial for biological scaffold fabrication in cartilage tissue engineering

“…Despite tremendous progress in the field of orthopedic with respect to cartilage damages, fulfilling cartilage regeneration still remains unresolved 37 . One possible reason behind unsuccessful cartilage treatment may be related to intrinsic of this tissue, which suffers from a lack of natural regeneration 21 . However, the marked improvement in biomaterials based therapy in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine as well as cell‐based therapies, relatively surmount this shortcoming 22 .…”

“…However, in order to minimize the detriments of cell presence on chemical and biological properties of utilized natural ECM, decellularization is needed 14 . Scaffolds derived from decellularized ECM of native tissues, especially cartilage, have raised interests for the regeneration of damaged tissues due to their chondroinduction ability and preservation of growth factors 15‐17 Numerous ECM‐based scaffolds have been derived from different warm‐blooded animals' cartilage up to now, including human 8,18 bovine 10,19 porcine 9,20 and caprine 21,22 In the last decades, due to the outbreak of disease from the mentioned source, the scientists have studied to find the alternative sources with the least risk of transmitting the diseases to human. A compatible source with weak immunogenicity and low chances of causing transmissible diseases is aquatic wastes 23 .…”

Waste-derived biomaterials as building blocks in the biomedical field

“…3 and 4). 188 A recent study has demonstrated that caprine ear cartilages decellularized by a hypotonic–hypertonic (HH) buffer and Triton X-100 solutions promoted the differentiation of MSCs in vitro along with the formation of new cartilage and bony tissues without any immune reaction when implanted into an osteochondral defect in the rabbit model (Fig. 5).…”