Repairing the eardrum: The sound of self-healing

Ruptured eardrums are relatively common. Fortunately, small tears usually heal by themselves. But some large tears need to be repaired by a surgeon. This animation shows how a new tissue engineering technique could make that process much easier and cheaper. The technique uses a scaffold and growth factor to stimulate the eardrum’s own cells to grow over the tear.

For a poster on this subject go to: http://www.nature.com/nature/outline/eardrum-regeneration

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