Healing Clefts

One in 700 babies in the UK have a cleft lip and palate – a gap in the upper lip and roof of the mouth, the palate. Currently, surgery can't fully bridge the gap in the palate. Tissue engineering may provide a solution through implanting bioscaffolds – scaffolds made from donor tissue with the donor cells removed and replaced with host cells in a process called recellularisation. Researchers now create a bioscaffold using the connective tissue that covers the hard palate in pigs. After the pig cells were removed, some bioscaffolds were perforated to create microscopic pores. The scaffolds were then recellularised with human mesenchymal stem cells. Scanning electron microscopy (pictured) revealed that the cells spread, layered up and matured. Notably in micro-perforated scaffolds, more bone-related genes were switched on in the stem cells. This approach therefore looks promising for treating cleft lips and palates.

Written by Lux Fatimathas

Lux Fatimathas

Writer

Having pursued science through a career in research, communications and publishing, she is currently a writer and editor for a healthcare marketing agency and also juggles freelance science writing.

• Image from work by M. I. Rizzo, L. Tomao, F. Locatelli, L. Leone and M. Zama, and colleagues
• Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital, IRCCS and Department of Neuroscience, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in Scientific Reports, July 2021