Use of cultured mucosal grafts to cover defects caused by vestibuloplasty: an in vivo study.

PURPOSE

In oral and maxillofacial surgery palatal mucosal grafts are routinely used to cover mucosal defects caused by vestibuloplasty. However, the quantity of palatal mucosa is a limiting factor in more extensive operations. This study investigated whether autologous cultured sheets of mucosa can serve as a dressing for these wounds.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Punch biopsies (diameter, 4 mm) were taken from the hard palate of eight patients (five men, three women; mean age 43 years). Epithelial cells were enzymatically dissociated from these tissue specimens and grown in vitro in the presence of a fibroblast feeder layer. Within 3 weeks, a transplantable epithelial sheet of about 20 cm2 was obtained. The sheet was detached from the culture flask by enzyme treatment and fixed to a carrier of Vaseline (Cheeseborough Ponds Inc, Greenwich, CT) gauze. Using a split-mouth technique, the sheet was placed on half of a mucosal defect created by vestibuloplasty, while the other half of the defect was covered by a conventional split-thickness palatal graft. Both the cultured and conventional graft were held in place by the patient's relined denture fixed with perimandibular sutures. One week postsurgery, the denture and Vaseline gauze were removed. Three months after vestibuloplasty, biopsy specimens of each grafted site were taken and processed for light and transmission electron microscopy (LM, TEM).

RESULTS

Three months postsurgery, the grafted mucosa of both sites bore close resemblance to palatal mucosa. Both the cultured and split-thickness grafts were vascularized, did not evoke a homograft reaction, and showed a smooth graft/lip mucosal junction and minimal wound contraction. LM and TEM revealed that both types of grafts formed a fully differentiated keratinizing mucosa with a well-developed basement membrane and rete ridges, comparable with the histology and ultrastructure of palatal mucosa in situ.

CONCLUSION

It was concluded from this study that cultured mucosa can serve as a proper dressing for mucosal defects after vestibuloplasty.