Mesenchymal stem cells in post-surgical cavities of large maxillary bone lesions.

BACKGROUND: Recent studies have highlighted that MSCs are capable of regenerating large bone defects when used in combination with bone substitutes and increasing allo-graft osteointegration. We investigated the hypothesis that autologous MSCs may lead to increased bone regeneration and reduced healing time in post-surgical cavities of large maxillary bone lesions.

METHODS: This study involved 10 patients (TEST GROUP) (6 males and 4 females). All patients had expansive mandibular lesions larger than 3 cm. From the surgical point of view, the 10 patients were treated with MSCs (withdrawal of the iliac crest bone marrow BMMSs) directly into the post-surgical cavity, without the addition of filler.

RESULTS: and radiological data, in the postoperative, were compared to those of patients who did not receive any grafting of MSCs. The 7 patients with mandibular lesions showed a rapid and very good healing with an 85-90% ossification of the major defect at 12 months.

CONCLUSIONS: Through the use of stem cells a greater ossification of the residual cavity (85-90%) was observed at 12 months after surgical enucleation in contenitive defects.