title: Soft tissue engineering in craniomaxillofacial surgery.
abstract: Craniofacial soft tissue reconstruction may be required following trauma, tumor resection, and to repair congenital deformities. Recent advances in the field of tissue engineering have significantly widened the reconstructive armamentarium of the surgeon. The successful identification and combination of tissue engineering, scaffold, progenitor cells, and physiologic signaling molecules has enabled the surgeon to design, recreate the missing tissue in its near natural form. This has resolved the issues like graft rejection, wound dehiscence, or poor vascularity. Successfully reconstructed tissue through soft tissue engineering protocols would help surgeon to restore the form and function of the lost tissue in its originality. This manuscript intends to provide a glimpse of the basic principle of tissue engineering, contemporary, and future direction of this field as applied to craniofacial surgery.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Section of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University of Michigan Medical School and School of Dentistry, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
authors.forename: Roderick Y
authors.initials: RY
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Section of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University of Michigan Medical School and School of Dentistry, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
authors.forename: Anthony C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Fasi
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Section of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University of Michigan Medical School and School of Dentistry, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
authors.forename: Stephen E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Feinberg
keywords: Craniofacial; ex vivo produced oral mucosa equivalent; reconstruction; soft tissue; tissue engineering