Development, optimization and characterization of a full-thickness tissue engineered human oral mucosal model for biological assessment of dental biomaterials

J Mater Sci Mater Med. 2008 Apr;19(4):1793-801. doi: 10.1007/s10856-007-3321-1. Epub 2007 Nov 28.

Abstract

Restorative dental materials and oral health care products come into direct contact with oral mucosa and can cause adverse reactions. In order to obtain an accurate risk assessment, the in vitro test model must reflect the clinical situation as closely as possible. The aim of this study was to develop and optimize a three-dimensional full-thickness engineered human oral mucosal model, which can be used for biological assessment of dental materials. In this study human oral fibroblasts and keratinocytes were isolated from patients and seeded onto a number of collagen-based and synthetic scaffolds using a variety of cell seeding techniques and grown at the air/liquid interface to construct human oral mucosa equivalents. Suitability of 10 different scaffolds for engineering human oral mucosa was evaluated in terms of biocompatibility, biostability, porosity, and the ability to mimic normal human oral mucosa morphology. Finally an optimized full-thickness engineered human oral mucosa was developed and characterized using transmission electron microscopy and immunostaining. The oral mucosa reconstruct resembled native human oral mucosa and it has the potential to be used as an accurate and reproducible test model in mucotoxicity and biocompatibility evaluation of dental materials.

MeSH terms

  • Biocompatible Materials / chemistry*
  • Biomedical Engineering / methods
  • Cell Culture Techniques
  • Collagen / chemistry
  • Dental Materials / chemistry*
  • Fibroblasts / cytology*
  • Humans
  • Keratinocytes / cytology
  • Lipid Bilayers / chemistry
  • Microscopy, Electron, Transmission
  • Models, Biological
  • Mouth Mucosa / cytology
  • Mouth Mucosa / pathology*
  • Porosity
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Tissue Engineering / methods*

Substances

  • Biocompatible Materials
  • Dental Materials
  • Lipid Bilayers
  • Collagen