Soft tissue engineering in craniomaxillofacial surgery

Abstract

Craniofacial soft tissue reconstruction may be required following trauma, tumor resection, and to repair congenital deformities. Recent advances in the field of tissue engineering have significantly widened the reconstructive armamentarium of the surgeon. The successful identification and combination of tissue engineering, scaffold, progenitor cells, and physiologic signaling molecules has enabled the surgeon to design, recreate the missing tissue in its near natural form. This has resolved the issues like graft rejection, wound dehiscence, or poor vascularity. Successfully reconstructed tissue through soft tissue engineering protocols would help surgeon to restore the form and function of the lost tissue in its originality. This manuscript intends to provide a glimpse of the basic principle of tissue engineering, contemporary, and future direction of this field as applied to craniofacial surgery.

Trends of regenerative tissue engineering for oral and maxillofacial reconstruction in veterinary medicine

“…Oral and maxillofacial soft tissue engineering is meant to reconstruct lip, skin, salivary gland, oral mucosa, muscle, ligament, and TMJ-related tissues, or periodontal tissues. Soft tissue engineering facilitates defect reconstruction for soft tissues ( 173 ). Unlike hard tissue, scaffold materials for soft tissues vary in their flexibility ( 9 ).…”

Basic Principles of Bioengineering and Regeneration

“…59 Over the past decades, free gingival and connective tissue grafts have been used in clinical dentistry to treat gingival recession, increase keratinized tissue, and augment missing tissue. Soft tissue is harvested, usually from the palate, and has become highly predictable in providing patients with an esthetic solution to common mucogingival problems.…”

“…To regenerate larger and more complex volumes of soft tissue, tissue engineering principles must be followed. 59 Preliminary clinical reports as well as multiple animal studies demonstrate the development of an ex vivo–produced oral mucosal equivalent that consists of a patient’s own keratinocytes cultured on a commercially available acellular freeze-dried dermis stimulated by signaling molecules in the culture media. 59,66–69 These data are particularly exciting because soft tissue defects are extremely challenging to treat, especially because they are exposed to the oral cavity with risk of contamination and infection.…”

Biomimetic approaches to complex craniofacial defects

“…In depth review of the theory and applications of tissue, engineering has been the subject of several articles. [ 16 19 ]…”

“…Kim et al detailed soft tissue engineering in the craniofacial skeleton in an excellent article published in the previous issue of the journal. [ 16 ]…”