Collagen, a compound that is considered to be essential for skin care products, is now being used for a number of other benefits as well. Collagen is the compound responsible for holding your skin together and it is the one that ultimately causes aging in the human body. Skin care companies have used topical collagen to boost the natural collagen levels in the body in order to make the skin look brighter, fresher and younger. Scientists have now found a way to use collagen and sheep cartilage cells to create human like ears.

According to the BBC, ear reconstructions are one of the major surgical technologies that have sprung up in the recent past. These technologies can go a long way in helping out people with serious injuries. Up to now, the biggest problem with ear reproduction was that the cartilage was harvested from polymer implants or the rib cages of the patient. These materials never offered the flexibility offered by real ears and they also failed to maintain their shape.

A study that was published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface created waves for having reconstructed a lookalike for the human ear using collagen. According to the study, the scientific team managed to fabricate an artificial ear using bovine collagen and titanium wires. Researchers used a 3-D printer to produce ear shaped structures and then used this structure to make a mold. The mold was then used to build an ear-shaped support system with the help of cow collagen and titanium wires. This was finally seeded with an ear shaped scaffold that was made with cartilage cells from sheep.

To further test the results, the researchers embedded these synthetic ears under the skin of rats and allowed them to grow for a period of 12 weeks. After a period of 12 weeks, the ears began to resemble like human ears and theoretically function as one as well. The team is now hoping to enter the trial phase, so that these revolutionary creations can be used on humans in the next few years.

As with all other collagen studies, the future certainly seems to be extremely interesting and the medical industry seems to be revolutionizing itself in a big way. Hopefully, as science and medical advancements happen, we should be able to unlock all the wonders offered by this magical compound.