Using Stem Cell for Jaw Regeneration

Jaws matter way more than most people realize. The jaw is made up of two parts, the mandible and maxilla, and their main functions are to chew, speak, keep the airway stable, and maintain facial symmetry/social expression.  Loss or dysfunction of jaw bone can produce not only functional problems (difficulty eating, speaking, or breathing) but also profound aesthetic and psychosocial consequences that affect quality of life. Because the jaw is exposed to extreme force, complex structure, and tied to soft tissue and teeth, restoring its form and function is the most difficult and demanding task in reconstructive surgery. There are many things that could cause loss in function or deformity to the jaw.

This includes trauma (fractures), tooth loss with subsequent bone resorption, tumor resection (e.g, after ameloblastoma), infection and osteonecrosis, congenital defects, degenerative disease, and more. Standard treatments depend on the defect’s size and cause but commonly include bone grafting, metal hardware and plates, distraction osteogenesis and prosthetic reconstruction. These approaches can rebuild contour and function but have downsides. These include donor site pain and morbidity, limited graft volume or mismatch in shape, risk of infection or hardware failure. However, there is a new innovative alternative to treating these jaw defects called stem cell based regeneration.

With this technique, doctors extract and harness cells from bone marrow, fat tissue, or oral tissue and together with scaffold are able to grow new bone with the patients own cells. In early human studies, MSCs seeded onto biocompatible scaffolds delivered with biomaterials have promoted bone formation, reducing the need of specific healing environments. So how are they better than standard grafts? Well 1) they allow for more precise 3D shaping of the replacement tissue, and 2) it restores the tissue that better matches the native biology (includes vascularization and immune modulation. This leads to efficiency in healing.

If stem cells approach treatment the right way, the implications for oral maxillofacial and orthopedic practice are grand. For surgeons, tissue engineering could shift some reconstructions from long, tedious operations to single side repairs, lowering morbidity and operative time. For medicine more broadly, jaw regeneration is promising and potentially transformative, but the field must pass rigorous clinical testing and standardization before it becomes the routine / acceptable treatment we hope for it to be.

by Nathan Clemente at Incisionary

APA References:

Alarcón-Apablaza, J., Prieto, R., Rojas, M. F., & Fuentes, R. (2023). Potential of Oral Cavity Stem Cells for Bone Regeneration: A Scoping Review. Cells, 12(10), 1392–1392. https://doi.org/10.3390/cells12101392

Gjerde, C., Mustafa, K., Hellem, S., Rojewski, M., Gjengedal, H., Yassin, M. A., Feng, X., Skaale, S., Berge, T., Rosen, A., Shi, X.-Q., Ahmed, A. B., Gjertsen, B. T., Schrezenmeier, H., & Layrolle, P. (2018). Cell therapy induced regeneration of severely atrophied mandibular bone in a clinical trial. Stem Cell Research & Therapy, 9(1), 213. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13287-018-0951-9

Hung, M., Sadri, M., Katz, M., Schwartz, C., & Amir Mohajeri. (2024). A Systematic Review of Stem Cell Applications in Maxillofacial Regeneration. Dentistry Journal, 12(10), 315–315. https://doi.org/10.3390/dj12100315

(2025). Clinicaltrials.gov. https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT04297813?utm_source