Human Tissue Regeneration in Maxillo-facial Area: From Stem Cells to Micrografts

Human tissue regeneration, especially the bone, today is one of the most important challenges for medicine and the need for this is particularly evident in the maxillo-facial area where it can be estimated that 1,500,000 patients in Europe undergo craniofacial reconstruction each year. Autologous bone is considered as the gold standard of bone graft materials, however, this approach is very limited. Recent research of non-embryonic stem cells provides new possibilities for no invasively obtaining new autologous bone from stem cells provided by various tissues from the same patient. Furthermore, in the literature, there are limited long-term data available mainly on the safe and efficacy of the prolonged use of stem cells. In this review, we will summarize the studies conducted on the regeneration, repair and rebuilding of craniofacial tissues using stem cells both in the presence or the absence of implantable biocompatible materials and the use of new micro-graft technologies, obtained through the Rigeneracons® medical device.