Tissue-Engineered Ribs for Chest Wall Reconstruction: A Case with 12-Year Follow-Up

Abstract

We hereby report on a case in which a huge chest wall defect generated by resection of a massive aggressive tumor (desmoplastic fibroma) was repaired with osteogenic-induced mesenchymal stem cells embedded in a bone-derived biomaterial. In this case, there were three challenges to overcome: reconstruction of the soft tissue, repair of the skeletal defect of the thoracic wall and repair of the defect in the pleural cavity. The defects of soft tissue and pleural cavity were reconstructed, respectively, with an ipsilateral abdominal flap and a diaphragm muscular flap. The huge defect in the chest wall was successfully repaired with the tissue-engineered ribs, which was confirmed by long-term follow-up with computerized tomography and histological and immunohistochemical evaluations. In view of its effectiveness and safety, tissue-engineered bones may have a broad application for the repair of large skeletal defects and bone regeneration.

Keywords::

• allogenic bone-derived scaffold
• bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells
• chest wall
• reconstruction
• rib
• tissue engineering

Acknowledgements

The authors thank L Deng, W Zhi and X-H Chen for their assistance in the experiments. They also thank Y-C Huang, JYJ Kang and O Parolini for their useful comments on the manuscript.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This work was supported by grants from the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (2012AA020503, 2002AA205011). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Informed consent

The authors state that they have obtained verbal and written informed consent from the patient/patients for the inclusion of their medical and treatment history within this case report.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by grants from the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (2012AA020503, 2002AA205011). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed. No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.