Tissue Engineering: Emerging Concept in Oral Maxillofacial Reconstruction-A Review Article

Introduction Tissue engineering or tissue regeneration is a multidisciplinary field with the perspective to replace tissue loss as a result of the traumatic defect, oncosurgery, or organ damage. (1) As an alternative to current surgical techniques developments in tissue regeneration using the gene therapy and stem cell research endeavor to develop cells, scaffolds and cell signaling molecules to rejuvenate large oral and maxillofacial tissue defect with accurate reproduction of normal tissue. One of the major challenges in front of maxillofacial surgeon is reconstruction of large tissue defect. A tissue engineering approach provides numerous prospective benefits, including a declination in donor site morbidity, a decrease in procedural sensitivity of the repair, and the capacity to intimately ape the in vivo tissue environment into recapitulate normal craniofacial development. (2) Principles of tissue engineering The general principles of tissue engineering involve combining living cells with a natural/synthetic support or scaffold to build a threedimensional living construct that is functionally, structurally and mechanically equal to or better than the tissue that is to be replaced. The development of such a construct requires a careful selection of four key materials: 1) scaffold, 2) growth factors, 3) extracellular matrix, and 4) cells. (3) Regeneration of tissues is a complex and process that proceeds along a pathway including the three well known steps of inflammation, proliferation, and remodeling. During this process biological signals accomplish the increase in cell numbers that fill the defect or cover the wound. At the same time, specialization of the newly formed tissue-occurs through morphogenic signals which induce the tissue specific differentiation. (4)