Fig. 1.

Scheme of the present clinical study: Transplantation of autologous cell sheets produced from nasal mucosa into the middle ear. Inferior nasal turbinate mucosa tissue of approximately 10 × 10 mm in size was collected by endoscopy in the outpatient department of the hospital. The harvested nasal mucosa was immediately transported to the cell processing facility (CPF). Autologous human nasal epithelial cell sheets are prepared by aseptic manipulation in the CPF. The cell sheets manufactured were transported to the operating room and transplanted.