Ears and noses from a test tube

Then they fashion the shape of a nose or an ear by hand, before placing this 'scaffold under the skin of a patient.

However, using the new technique, doctors would simply be able to 'grow a new ear or nose from scratch that would ultimately be biologically indistinguishable from the real thing.

To achieve the breakthrough, researchers took stem cells from a childs abdominal fat and then combined them with a polymer 'nano-scaffold almost a microscopic netting.

They then managed to manipulate this composite in a laboratory so that human cartilage tissue grew into the tiny holes within the polymer.

The technique could now be used to help treat a number of conditions. For patients with 'microtia for example, the stem cells that make the cartilage tissue could be placed in a mould so that it grew into the shape of an ear.

This 'cartilage ear frame would then be inserted under a flap of skin on a patients head which would mould around the shape. When a biodegradable polymer scaffold is used, it would dissolve over time, leaving only human cartilage present.

Although it would not help with other functions, such as hearing, the ear would be biologically indistinguishable from a real outer ear.

A paper on the new technique has now been published in the Journal Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine. Neil Bulstrode, Consultant Plastic Surgeon, at Great Ormond Street Hospital, one of the authors of the research, said: It is such an exciting prospect with regard to the future treatment of these patients and many more.

Currently I take the rib cartilage from the chest to make an ear. I carve a framework in the shape of an ear. Then I will place that framework in a pocket under the skin, which is sucked down with a vacuum so that the skin conforms to the contours of the ear framework.

But if we could produce a block of cartilage using stem cells and tissue engineering, this would be the Holy Grail for our field.

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Ears and noses from a test tube