A CLINICAL REVIEW ON REVOLT OF TISSUE ENGINEERING IN THE MAXILLOFACIAL PRACTICE

Dr. Naveen Nandagopal*, Dr. Sreejith S., Dr. Ajith Kumar and Dr. Chitra Raj

ABSTRACT

Tissue engineering is an enchanting way of producing living tissues for patients who have lost an important tissue or part of it. It forms an excellent and engrossing alternative for maxillofacial reconstruction in near future. The aim of tissue engineering is to regenerate new tissues within a specific environment with help of cells, scaffold, and the signaling molecules(growth factors). Even though MSCs along with bone grafts and BMPs like growth factors forms the ideal triad of TE, various sources were available for these triads. Recombinant protein therapy, cell based therapy and gene therapy are the different approaches used in tissue engineering. A lot of options like vascularized and non vascularized flaps are available for maxillofacial reconstruction. But its shortcomings enables the tissue engineered constructs to be used as a good alternative for reconstruction with improved functional and therapeutic outcome. Today, the field of tissue engineering has expanded tremendously. New technologies like recombinant gene transfer, bioreactors, rapid prototyping etc were on the way of development in the field of tissue engineering, which may help to find out a final solution for the challenges faced during the process of tissue regeneration.

Keywords: Tissue engineering; Maxillofacial reconstruction; Mesenchymal stem cells; Platelet rich plasma; Gene therapy; Bone morphogenic proteins; Bioreactors.