UNAIR NEWS – The autogenous bone graft method (graft taken from the patient’s own body, such as the pelvis or ribs) is a method often used to deal with tumor problems in patients. This method, in the case of mandibular tumors (lower jaw bones) is used to improve the function of chewing, speech and facial cosmetics in patients. However, this method has limitation and risk causing complications in the donor area such as infection, sensory or motoric nervous injury.
In his oration at the professorship inauguration Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR) on Wednesday, December 18, 2019, Prof. Dr. David Buntoro Kamadjaja drg., MDS., Sp.BM (K) described his research on tissue engineering for mandibular reconstruction: challenges and potential as alternative methods to overcome the limitations of autogenous bone graft.
On the occasion, Prof. David said that, there are three main components of tissue engineering, cells, scaffolds, and biological signals. All three are called tissue engineering triad. According to his research, he continued, scaffolds for tissue engineering are usually used from organic and inorganic materials.
“Research has proven that a good scaffold for tissue engineering is a combination of organic and inorganic materials,” said the lecturer of Faculty of Dental Medicine (FKG).
Furthermore, the tissue engineering strategy is also carried out with two approaches, growth factor scaffold and cell-scaffold. According to Prof. David, the strategy of growth factor scaffold adds certain growth factors to the scaffold to increase tissue regeneration without relying on biological signals from surrounding tissues.
“This strategy also has a disadvantage that the growth factor added to the scaffold cannot last for a long time. So that its function is limited only to the initial phase of the healing process, “he said.
The cell-scaffold strategy, on the other hand, is done by taking a few cells or tissues from the patient’s body to be developed in in vitro culture. After reaching a certain amount of cell, it is germinated in the scaffold, and after some time, the composite cell scaffold is implanted in the bone defect.
Prof. David, also explained that cells used for bone tissue engineering are mesenchymal stem cells (MSC), which are cells that have not been differentiated and are found in many bone marrow aspirates and fat tissue.
“The MSC- scaffold strategy can form bone if MSC can be distributed evenly across all porosity of scaffold. Such ideal condition can be achieved with the help of a bioreactor, “he said.
Prof. David and team have developed a three-dimensional scaffold of bovine bone through a certain process (FDBBX) because bovine bone has porosity, structure and composition that closely resembles human bone. The development began in 2014 with rabbit test animals and was developed with dog test animals. (*)
Author: Asthesia Dhea Cantika
Editor: Khefti Al Mawalia
