An experimental study of artificial mucosa for reconstruction in oral cavity

Abstract

Since skin grafted into the oral cavity does not turn into mucosa, its original characteristics remain unchanged. This may cause discomfort to patients treated with such grafted skin on account of hair follicles and keratinization. This phenomenon is induced by subepithelial connective tissue, and is thus refered to as “Epithelio-Mesenchymal Interaction”, which concept has been well known in the field of the developmental biology. The grafting of mucosa itself would be preferable, but this is severely limited due to its scarcity.
Accordingly, we have recently prepared artificial mucosa in vitro, using fibroblasts and epithelial cells derived from rabbit oral mucosa and collagen gel, and transplanted it to donor animals. The grafted artificial mucosa survived and was analized clinically and histologically. At 1 week after grafting, artificial mucosa survived completely, some part of epithelial cells remained. Epithelial cells grew out from the epithelial segment and covered a part of the artificial lamina propria. Small capillaries (φ5-10 pm) invaded into the graft and completed the vascular structure as the mucosal tissue. More a week the graft matured and epithelial layer thickened for 7-8 layers. Basement membrane was observed on the PAS stain specimen on the 21 st day. On the 28 th day, the graft contracted into 80 % of original size. No hair regrowth or keratinization of the graft were observed. Histologically, the inflammatory reactions induced by immunologeail rejection were not seen during the whole period of grafting.These findings suggested its possibility for clinical use.