Background and objectives: Tongue is a strategic organ in the oral cavity that is commonly affected by different diseases and malignancies, that may require surgical resection leaving resistant defects. Adipose derived stem cells (ADSC) are an available, accessible and abundant mesenchymal stem cells source that have a wide range of differentiation potentials and secrete a large variety of growth factors and cytokines. Cell conditioned media (CM) hold all the biologically active components secreted by the cultured cells providing a safe, cell free therapy. This study was conducted to assess the regenerative capacity of adipose derived stem cells and their conditioned media on mechanically induced tongue defects.
Materials and Methods: Male, Sprague Dawley rats were subjected to mechanical circular defects on the dorsum of the tongue and then allocated to three groups (n=15): group I (control), group II (ADSC treated), and group III (ADSC-CM treated). On the fourth, seventh and fourteenth days after defect preparation, five rats from each group were euthanized and specimens were subjected to clinical, histological, histomorphometrical, and immunohistochemical examination followed by statistical analysis.
Results: In both ADSC and ADSC-CM treated groups, the tongue defects showed reduced defect depth, better histological regeneration including the epithelial layers, the connective tissue and the tongue musculature, as well as enhanced cellular proliferation, and less inflammation as compared to the control untreated group. ADSC treated group showed earlier healing than the ADSC-CM treated group, but the results didn't express statistical significance.
Conclusions: ADSC and their CM can be good candidates for treating tongue defects.