[Tissue engineering of the oral mucosa]

We report our experience in developing a mechanism to build a full-thickness oral mucosa substitute using cell culture and protocols of tissue engineering. We generated primary cultures of human oral mucosa fibroblasts and keratinocytes from small biopsies of normal oral mucosa using enzymatic treatments. Each type of cell was cultured in selective medium. Microanalytical quality control of cell viability was carried out. A multilayered oral mucosa construct was built by sequential deposition of fibroblasts immersed a gel of human fibrin and epithelium in a manner that reproduce the normal histological structure. Histological and genetic quality control studies suggest that our model show similarities with native human oral mucosa.