Why scientist put an ear on mouse

WHY SCIENTISTS PUT AN EAR ON A MOUSE

HAVEN'T YOU HEARD? IT'S CALLED THE EARMOUSE.

Y ou may have seen it in a textbook or on TV: a mouse with a human ear on its back. You might have thought that the mouse was genetically engineered, or deformed, or the result of mad scientists "playing God." His name is "Vacanti Mouse"

Maybe it even represents mad science. However, many misunderstand how and why the mouse was created in the first place.

Why Scientists Put an Ear on a Mouse

In the late ’90s, doctors Charles Vacanti, Joseph Vacanti, and Bob Langer wanted to create human body parts in a lab. They had experimented with creating “biodegradable scaffoldings,” or structures that would dissolve inside a body, in various shapes. One day, Joseph Vacanti heard his colleague complain that it was so hard to create new ears for patients who are missing them, as ears have such peculiar and complicated shapes. That’s when he decided to make a scaffolding in the shape of a human ear.

Shaping the Scaffolding

The researchers created an ear-shaped scaffolding and put cells of cartilage from a cow on it. Cartilage is a type of semi-rigid tissue found in your ears, nose, and chest.

Then, the scientists took a strain of mouse that was immunocompromised, meaning that it didn’t have an immune system that would attack the foreign cow cells. They put the mouse under anesthetic, made a surgical incision, and placed the ear shape under its skin.

As predicted, the mouse’s system fed the cow cartilage cells, and as the scaffolding dissolved, the mouse was left with an artificial shape of a human ear. Although, It was only the outside part of the ear with no eardrum, making the function of the ear completely obsolete.

Then, the researchers repeated the process again and again, as they often do with experiments. “There were lots and lots of animals, because it was science,” said Vacanti. That means that the iconic earmouse was just one of many earmice!

When the scientists had important results, they published a study in the journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

How did the mouse become so famous?

In 1998, the BBC aired a program with an earmouse in the trailer. And, to say the least, the world was stunned. Many were impressed by the feats of science, but some were concerned, leaving rumors and explanations to run amuck.

In 1999, a group took out a full-page ad in the New York Times with a picture of the mouse and the question: “Who Plays God in the 21st Century?” The ad suggested that the mouse was a product of genetic engineering, but that’s incorrect. The ad also says that Biotech companies are “blithely removing components of human beings, and other creatures, and treating us all like auto parts at a swap meet.”

However, the ears on the mice never came from, nor went to, any humans. Instead, the project on the mice was intended to be practice. If the doctors could perfect this technique in mice, and then in large animals, maybe one day they could help humans grow their own missing body parts.

Helping Humans Today

The Vacanti mouse was not simply an exercise in creating Kronenberg-style horrors. It was meant to help scientists understand how to grow body parts in humans, using their own skin and cartilage cells.

In January of 2018, doctors in China and Japan published a study showing that they had achieved just that. Two-and-a-half years prior, they had recruited children with one malformed ear each. The scientists scanned their normal ears, reversed the shape using a computer, and 3D-printed a new biodegradable scaffolding. They added cartilage cells from their patients and put the scaffoldings under the skin. As a result, the children now have two ears that are mostly normal.

Without the strange, pink mouse in the biology textbook, these types of medical advancements may have never happened.

What happened to the mouse in the photo?

Many people had children asking those questions, and so what we would say is, we removed the ear, and the mouse lived out a happy, normal life. It was not harmed by our work, so I think that's the answer that I would like to give. In the world of medicine, there's a massive controversy about the use of animals. We're hoping to eliminate the need to use animals because we can now generate human structures and tissues using human cells and we can study them without the use of animals. That's our long-term goal.

It didn't actually live happily ever after, did it?

Of course it did. The happy little mouse. That little mouse was very pleased that he could contribute in some way and make people's lives better.