Collagen: The superior material for full-thickness oral mucosa tissue engineering

Area of Science:

• Biomaterials Science
• Tissue Engineering
• Oral Biology

Background:

• Tissue engineering aims to create full-thickness oral mucosa constructs for in vitro modeling and clinical applications.
• Key challenges include identifying scaffolds with optimal porosity, interconnected networks, biodegradability, and biocompatibility.
• Collagen has emerged as a superior biomaterial compared to others for oral mucosa engineering.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review tissue-engineered oral mucosa models developed using various materials.
• To focus on the advantages of collagen-based scaffolds in oral mucosa tissue engineering.
• To explore current in vitro applications and future clinical potential.

Main Methods:

• Literature review of articles published between January 2000 and December 2022.
• Searches conducted in PubMed and Google Scholar databases.
• Analysis focused on scaffold materials, construct development, and applications.

Main Results:

• Collagen-based scaffolds demonstrate excellent biological properties for oral mucosa engineering.
• These scaffolds yield constructs with high histological resemblance to native human oral mucosa.
• They also show comparable expression of differentiation markers to native tissue.

Conclusions:

• Collagen scaffolds are highly effective for creating high-quality, native-like oral mucosa constructs.
• Their biological properties make them ideal for tissue engineering the connective tissue component of oral mucosa.
• Collagen-based engineered oral mucosa shows significant promise for both research and clinical use.