再生医療の現状と口腔外科領域への応用

抄録

Recently tissue engineering concept has been developed and well recognized its usability in reconstructive surgery. In this article basic elements for tissue engineering such as stem cell scaffold and growth factors were described for young scientists in the field of oral surgery. Since 1985 we have fabricated several tissue and organs using tissue engineering concepts, for example, skin, cornea, nerve, cartilage and so on. Among them bone and periodontal tissue regeneration have been thought to be the most important target in dentistry. I will discuss the recent status of tissue engineering research and bone regeneration technique for dental implant.
In modern dentistry, implant have become a standard of care for occlusion restoration. For dental implant placement, the presence of sufficient bone volume is the most important prerequisite. However, implant surgeon faces frequently with a large alveolar bone defect due to periodontal disease or other serious injuries. In this circumstances we have attempted to regenerate bone in a significant osseous defect with minimal invasiveness and good plasticity, and to provide a clinical alternative to autogenous bone grafts. The new technology we developed was called as “injectable bone”, and involves the morphogenesis of new tissue using constructs formed from isolated cells with biocompatible scaffolds and growth factors, which are established by the tissue engineering concept. In our previous study, we used mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) as the isolated cells, and Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) as the growth factors and scaffold for bone regeneration and succeeded a progress bone formation in the grafted area. Based on the series of experimental studies, we applied the injectable bone for alveolar bone augmentation for implant installation.