The main purpose of the study is to assess a selection of commercially available bone biomaterials substitutes used as scaffolds for tissue engineering applications in dentistry, performing a clinical study on human subjects and using the microcomputed tomography (micro-CT) analysis to investigate the main morphological and critical parameters of bone and biomaterials structures. Micro-CT was performed in both the phases, preclinical and clinical. In addition, it was combined with histology to analyze the extracted bone four months after implantation. Quantitative analysis of the main morphological parameters as the porosity, the bone volume fraction (BV/TV) and the trabecular thickness (Tb.Th) evidenced the main difference among the biomaterials properties and their influence on the bone tissue regeneration. Qualitative observations by the three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of the microstructure, contributed to the visualization of the mineralized areas. The analyses conducted on the bone substitutes before and after the implantation allowed quantifying the main biomaterials morphological parameters and the characterization of the human bone tissue regeneration. Thus, micro-CT and its combined application with histology demonstrated as a powerful approach for the microstructural investigation and for the final assessment of the efficacy and effectiveness of the various treatments and implants.
Oral focal mucinosis (OFM) is a rare mucosal lesion of unknown etiopathogenesis. It is considered the oral counterpart of cutaneous focal mucinosis. From the anatomo-pathological point of view it is characterised by a focal degeneration of myxoid type of connective tissue. A literature survey revealed 50 reports of OFM cases worldwide. Here, we present an even more rare case with tongue involvement. Particular emphasis is placed on diagnostic-differential aspects of this kind of lesion, both from the clinical and the histopathological point of view, in respect to other manifestations of tongue mucosa.
After a short introduction to bone substitute biomaterials and X-ray microtomography, this article describes a research work carried out for in-vitro characterization of bone substitute biomaterials as well as for in-vivo investigation of human bone grafted with biomaterials. Three different bone substitute biomaterials have been analyzed in-vitro by means of 3D microtomographic technique, while human bone samples grafted with bone substitute biomaterials are investigated by 3D microtomography and histological techniques. 3D images of bone substitutes and human bone samples with biomaterials have been obtained, together with morphometric parameters, by microtomography . 2D histological images have also been obtained by traditional technique only for human bone samples with biomaterials. Compared to traditional histological analysis, 3D microtomography shows better results for investigating bone tissue and bone substitute biomaterial, and in a short time. Nevertheless, histological analysis remains the best technique for the observation of soft tissue and blood vessels.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.