[Tissue engineering of the oral mucosa]

This review contains the systematized data on the development and application of tissue engineering methods to generate in vitro oral mucosa (OM) tissues and its full-thickness equivalents. The data are presented describing the cultivation of epithelial monolayers and stratified sheets and connective tissue component, as well as their unification into the tissue-engineered constructs reproducing the structure of native OM. The equivalents engineered in vitro are used as the transplants in the areas of the defects of OM, or of some other mucous membranes and the skin. They are also widely applied as test-systems for in vitro experiments conducted to assess the effect of various factors on OM.