The 15-year-old patient was born with Treacher Collins Syndrome, a genetic disorder in which bones in the face and skull are underdeveloped or missing.
Surgeon Jesse Taylor, MD, and his team first carved a model of the missing bones from cadaver bone, then injected the bone with stem cells harvested from the patient’s stomach fat and with a type of growth hormone, called Bone Morphogenic Protein-2, which signals stem cells to turn into bone cells.
Then they wrapped the whole construct in periosteum, a membrane that covers living bone, harvested from the patient’s thigh, to supply blood vessels for the bone and help it produce its own growth hormone.
Finally, they placed the bone constructs in the patient’s skull, holding them in place with surgical screws.
Jay Johannigman, MD, a trauma surgeon at University Hospital and the University of Cincinnati, called the new procedure "the first concrete step" to a workable tissue engineering program.
Read Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center’s release on the procedure to grow cheekbones.
