2000 Volume 20 Issue 2 Pages 232-240
The purpose of this study was to investigate the changes of degradation activity of the extracellular matrix in mucosal scar tissue formed after palatoplasty in a cleft palate patient.
By using three-week-old Sprague-Dawley strain male rats, the distribution of the incidence of gelatinase activity in scar tissue after surgical stripping of palatal mucoperiosteum was evaluated. One, two, four, and eight weeks after surgical procedure, histological and enzymological changes were compared with the film in situ zymography method in each group.
From the results, at the first week after surgical operation the area stripped of mucoperiosteum consisted of immature granulation tissue with a saturation of inflammatory cells and high gelatinase activity was observed. A slight regeneration of epithelium with no gelatinase activity was found in this term.
After two weeks, gelatinase activity decreased with the subsidence of inflammatory cell saturation, and it was correlated with the degree of inflammatory changes. The epithelium was regenerated and gelatinase activity was found with the differentiation of epithelium cells.
After eight weeks, fibrous connective tissue with a few components of cells was observed. Compared with normal epithelium, no differences in structure, components of cells or gelatinase activity were found in this group. These findings suggested that the gelatinase activity in rat palatal mucosa was correlated with the degree of inflammatory changes during cicatrization.
