There is substantial need for a supply of human cartilage for head and neck reconstructive surgery. Septal cartilage provides a viable donor site for chondrocytes that can be expanded using tissue.engineering technologies developed by Advanced Tissue Sciences, Inc. for the treatment of burns and skin ulcers. The overall objective of this application is to apply previously developed technology in cell-scaffold tissue engineering and bioreactor design to produce cartilage for craniofacial reconstruction and repair. The hypothesis to be tested is that autologous cells isolated from human nasal cartilage can undergo proliferation and retain the ability to deposit a cartilage-like matrix. In order to test this hypothesis, the following specific aims will be performed: Aim 1: Isolate chondrocytes from human nasal cartilage, culture to allow proliferation and characterize cell phenotype before and after proliferation. Aim 2: Isolate cells from the nasal cartilage of 4 patients (ages 15 to 40 years), culture to increase number by 100-fold, and seed onto two scaffold types to determine ability to form cartilage in vitro. Phase I proposes to establish the potential for human nasal cartilage chondrocytes to develop cartilage constructs in vitro with potential for autologous implantation in Phase II of this project. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS: It is estimated that over 300,000 procedures were performed in the United States to correct craniofacial deformities in 1996 [Rhinoplasty (nose) 195,000, Orthognathic (jaw) 45,000, Mentoplasty (chin) 25,000, Otoplasty (ear) 20,000, facial birth defects 18,000, Malar Augmentation (cheek) 7,000]. This proposal suggests an approach to produce ample autologous cartilage to correct such defects
