Missing upper jaw from your own stem cells

Missing upper jaw from your own stem cells
A joint project between the HUCH Clinic for Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and the Regea Institute of Regenerative Medicine at the University of Tampere has opened up new options in the treatment of severe tissue deficiencies.

A procedure was performed recently at the Clinic for Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery in the HUCH Surgical Hospital. The right-side maxilla that had been previously removed from the patient due to a widespread tumour was replaced with a bone transplant grown from stem cells isolated from the patient’s own fatty tissue. The transplant was grown for roughly nine months inside the patient’s abdominal muscle in a custom-made mould.

The operation performed at the Clinic for Orall and Maxillofacial Surgery was, to our knowledge, the first of its kind in the world. The Clinic was partnered in this project by the Regea Institute of Regenerative Medicine operating as an independent institute of the University of Tampere. Regea’s responsibility was to isolate the stem cells from the patient’s fatty tissue and culture them in a unique cleanroom designed for tissue engineering for two weeks. After this the stem cells were attached to a suitable biomaterial and delivered back to HUCH.

In the future, new technology will improve our ability to correct difficult deficiencies in facial tissue that contains bone or cartilage. With this technology, the patient’s own bone tissue or cartilage from elsewhere in the body will no longer have to be transplated to reconstruct the missing tissue – stem cells can be isolated from the patient’s own fat cells to grow a tailored tissue implant. The morbidity and impairment caused to the patient because of the corrective surgical procedures will also be reduced.  Finland is one of the leading countries in the world in the development of cell and tissue technology.