Indications on suitable scaffold as carrier of stem cells in the alveoloplasty of cleft palate

Autologous iliac crest bone is used to close
the residual alveolar bone defect in cleft palate
patients during late mixed dentition. Surgery
involves physical and anaesthesiologic risks, longtime
hospitalization, high costs and not always
good results (15% failure rate). Alternatives to iliac
crest bone grafting are going to be evaluated:
synthetic, xenograft and allograft matrices combined
with platelet-rich plasma or recombined bone
morphogenic proteins for osteoinductivity are commercially
available. These alternatives have not yet
been determined to be equivalent to the previous
treatment. A new field of research is represented by
stem cells, which have been also used to regenerate
ischaemic cardiac tissue after heart attack, to treat
hypophosphatasia and osteoporosis. Our aim was to
use osteoblasts from stem cells to close the residual
palate cleft in association with a suitable carrier.
Stem cells are expanded in the Aastrom bioreactor,
differentiated into osteoblasts and positioned in the
bone defect by means of a Spongostan scaffold.
This scaffold has the best characteristics as
commercial availability, low cost, good manageability,
absence of allergic reactions or other side effects
on patient, biocompatibility, imbibition, radiotransparency,
reabsorbability and osteoinductivity.
Previous studies encourage Spongostan scaffold
application.