British doctors aim to grow ears from fat

Doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London are considering reconstruction faces with stem cells taken from their fat.

The team has grown cartilage in the laboratory and believe it could be used to rebuild ears and noses.

The doctors want to treat conditions like microtia, that results in the ear failing to develop properly and can be missing or malformed.

The team envisage an alternative – a tiny sample of fat would be taken from the child and stem cells would be extracted and grown from it.

An ear-shaped “scaffold” would be placed in the stem cell broth so the cells would take on the desired shape and structure. And chemicals would be used to persuade the stem cells to transform into cartilage cells.

This could then be implanted beneath the skin to give the child an ear shape.

The researchers have been able to create the cartilage in the scaffold, but safety testing is needed before they could be used in patients.

With files from BBC