Using three-dimensional porous internal titanium scaffold or allogenic bone scaffold for tissue-engineering condyle as a novel reconstruction of mandibular condylar defects

Mandibular destruction resulting from tumours, trauma, congenital, ankylosis and other reasons leads to disturbed masticatory function. The ideal goal would be to reconstruct a condyle that is similar to the original. However, each of the condylar reconstruction approaches in current has specific shortcomings. Tissue engineering can provide a method to overcome these difficulties. A tissue-engineered mandibular condyle composed of bone and cartilage has been reported, but the strength and shape of the scaffolds used cannot meet the requirement of the clinical use. Freeze-dried allogenic condylar bone is biocompatible, bioresorbable of low antigenicity and provides the morphology for the condyle similar to the original. It is a good scaffold material for tissue engineering. The three-dimensional porous internal titanium scaffold is also biocompatible; it can be easily made into the shape that we need. The two scaffolds have sufficient mechanical strength before no bone formation. Hence, we hypothesise using a three-dimensional porous titanium scaffold or an allogenic bone scaffold combined with osteogenic, chondrogenic material and bone marrow stromal stem cells in vivo tissue engineering to repair condylar defects. This article discusses the hypotheses.