Wisconsin Scientists Grow Functional Vocal Cord Tissue in the Lab

University of Wisconsin scientists have succeeded in growing functional vocal-cord tissue in the laboratory, a major step toward restoring a voice to people who have lost their vocal cords to cancer surgery or other injuries.

Dr. Nathan Welham, a speech-language pathologist, and colleagues from several disciplines, were able to bioengineer vocal-cord tissue able to transmit sound, they reported in a study published today in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

About 20 million Americans suffer from voice impairments, and many have damage to the vocal-cord mucosae, the specialized tissues that vibrate as air moves over them, giving rise to voice.

While injections of collagen and other materials can help some in the short term, Welham says not much can be done for people who have had larger areas of their vocal cords damaged or removed.

Voice is a pretty amazing thing, yet we don’t give it much thought until something goes wrong,” says Welham, an associate professor of surgery in the UW School of Medicine and Public Health. “Our vocal cords are made up of special tissue that has to be flexible enough to vibrate, yet strong enough to bang together hundreds of times per second. It’s an exquisite system and a hard thing to replicate.”

Welham and colleagues began with vocal-cord tissue from a cadaver and four patients who had their larynxes removed but did not have cancer. They isolated, purified and grew the cells from the mucosa, then applied them to a 3-D collagen scaffold, similar to a system used to grow artificial skin in the laboratory.

In about two weeks, the cells grew together to form a tissue with a pliable but strong connective tissue beneath, and layered epithelial cells on top. Proteomic analysis showed the cells produced many of the same proteins as normal vocal cord cells. Physical testing showed that the epithelial cells had also begun to form an immature basement membrane which helps create a barrier against pathogens and irritants in the airway.

Welham says the lab-grown tissue “felt like vocal-cord tissue,” and materials testing showed that it had qualities of viscosity and elasticity similar to normal tissue.

Read more: Wisconsin Scientists Grow Functional Vocal Cord Tissue in the Lab