Bone engineering by cell sheet technology to repair mandibular defects

Effectiveness of bone engineering by cell sheet technology to repair canine mandibular injuries was investigated. Cell sheets were produced from canine stem cells cultured by density gradient centrifugation and osteoblast induction. A scaffold surface of polylactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) copolymer was wrapped with cell sheets. Mandibular injuries were created in 12 healthy dogs followed by implantation of PLGA with (experimental group; n, 6) and without (control group; n, 6) cell sheets. The progression of the implants was examined at 3, 9, and 12 weeks postoperative. At postoperative 12 weeks, the graft mostly replaced the new bone in the experimental group, compact similar to normal bone was formed at lingual position and the broken end of the bone was normally healed. The bone mass in the control group was 2.5, which was significantly lower than the 4.5 in the experimental group. The optical density of the new bone in the experimental group was significantly higher than that in the control group. The experimental group had more haversian canal and red bone marrow and contained a larger number of lamellar bone than the control group. Overall, satisfactory bone engineering containing lamellar bone can be established by cell sheet technology, which is an ideal method to repair mandibular injuries.