Relative Composition of Fibrous Connective and Fatty/Glandular Tissue in Connective Tissue Grafts Depends on the Harvesting Technique but not the Donor Site of the Hard Palate.
BACKGROUND
Whether the composition of palatal connective tissue grafts (CTGs) varies depending on donor site or harvesting technique in terms of relative amounts of fibrous connective tissue (CT) and fatty/glandular tissue (FGT) is currently unknown and is histologically assessed in the present study.


METHODS
In 10 fresh human cadavers, tissue samples were harvested in the anterior and posterior palate and in areas close to (marginal) and distant from (apical) the mucosal margin. Mucosal thickness, lamina propria thickness (defined as the extent of subepithelial portion of the biopsy containing ≤25% or ≤50% FGT), and proportions of CT and FGT were semi-automatically estimated for the entire mucosa and for CTGs virtually harvested by split-flap (SF) preparation minimum 1 mm deep or after deepithelialization (DE).


RESULTS
Palatal mucosal thickness, ranging from 2.35 to 6.89 mm, and histologic composition showed high interindividual variability. Lamina propria thickness (P >0.21) and proportions of CT (P = 0.48) and FGT (P = 0.15) did not differ significantly among the donor sites (anterior, posterior, marginal, apical). However, thicker palatal tissue was associated with higher FGT content (P <0.01) and thinner lamina propria (P ≤0.03). Independent of the donor site, DE-harvested CTG contained a significantly higher proportion of CT and a lower proportion of FGT than an SF-harvested CTG (P <0.04).


CONCLUSIONS
Despite high interindividual variability in terms of relative tissue composition in the hard palate, DE-harvested CTG contains much larger amounts of CT and much lower amounts of FGT than SF-harvested CTG, irrespective of the harvesting site.
Division of Oral Surgery, University Clinic of Dentistry, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.|Department of Periodontology, Faculty of Odontology, University of Malmö, Malmö, Sweden.
Kristina
K
Bertl
Division of Oral Surgery, University Clinic of Dentistry, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Markus
M
Pifl
Department of Systematic Anatomy, Center for Anatomy and Cell Biology, Medical University of Vienna.
Lena
L
Hirtler
Bone and Biomaterials Research, Center for Anatomy and Cell Biology, Medical University of Vienna.
Barbara
B
Rendl
Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Experimental and Clinical Traumatology, Austrian Cluster for Tissue Regeneration, Vienna, Austria.
Sylvia
S
Nürnberger
Department of Periodontology, Faculty of Odontology, University of Malmö, Malmö, Sweden.
Andreas
A
Stavropoulos
Division of Oral Surgery, University Clinic of Dentistry, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Christian
C
Ulm
D000273:Adipose Tissue; D003238:Connective Tissue; D005889:Gingival Recession / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D010159:Palate / Q000601:surgery; D021362:Palate, Hard / Q000601:surgery
Connective tissue; gingival recession; histology; palate; plastic surgery; transplants