Tissue-engineered bone for maxillary sinus augmentation.

Purpose: Autologous, allogenic, and alloplastic materials for bony reconstruction in the craniomaxillofacial region have specific drawbacks stimulating the ongoing search for new materials. Cultivated skin and mucosa grafts are in clinical routine use in head and neck reconstruction but so far, to the best of our knowledge, no successful clinical application has been described of periosteum-derived tissue-engineered bone for augmentation of the edentulous posterior maxilla.

Patients And Methods: In a clinical study, augmentation of the posterior maxilla was carried out using a bone matrix derived from mandibular periosteum cells on an Ethisorb (Ethicon, Norderstedt, Germany) fleece.

Angiogenic factors in squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity: do they have prognostic relevance?

Introduction: Angiogenesis is a cascade-like mechanism which is essential for tumour growth and metastasis. Therefore the existence of angiogenic molecules and the density of activated endothelial cells in individual tumours is of major interest. MATERIAL/PATIENTS: In order to evaluate the prognostic significance of these molecules, the distribution pattern was studied of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and activated endothelial cells in tumours and normal, healthy oral mucosal specimens from 51 consecutive patients with primary oral squamous cell carcinoma.

[Markers in patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity. Expression and long-term follow-up of VEGF, FLT-1 and Tie2 in serum].

Objective: The quantification of serum or plasma levels of angiogenic factors in patients with malignancies aims at the description of these factors or their receptors and allows a tissue independent study of biological tumor behavior.

Methods: In 51 patients with untreated squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity (SCCOC) and 10 healthy controls, plasma levels of VEGF and serum levels of the VEGF-receptor FLT-1 and the Ang1-receptor Tie2 were measured. Using an ELISA technique, the concentration of these factors was measured preoperatively and postoperatively over a period of 5 weeks.

Soft tissue and hard tissue engineering in oral and maxillofacial surgery.

Autologous, allogenic and alloplastic materials for bony reconstruction in the cranio-maxillofacial area have specific drawbacks, thus stimulating the ongoing search for new (bio-) materials. Cultivated skin and mucosa grafts are in routine clinical use in head and neck reconstruction but so far, to the best of our knowledge, no successful clinical application has been described of periosteum-derived tissue-engineered bone for augmentation of the edentulous posterior maxilla. In a pilot clinical study, augmentation of the posterior maxilla was carried out using a bone matrix derived from mandibular periosteum cells on an Ethisorb fleece.