CURRENT CONCEPTS OF THE ROLE OF FIBROBLASTS AND EXTRACELLULAR-MATRIX IN WOUND-HEALING AND THEIR RELEVANCE TO ORAL IMPLANTOLOGY

Control of tissue differentiation and modelling are discussed in the context of epithelial-mesenchymal interactions and oral implantology. An accumulating body of evidence points to functional heterogeneity of oral fibroblasts and the use of a cell density migration assay to characterize this is described. Present data indicate that oral mucosal fibroblasts exhibit fetal-like phenotypes except in their responses to peptide growth factors. The hypothesis that clonal expansion of fibroblast subsets plays a role in the development of maliganancy and in inflammatory disorders is presented. Production of a newly identified migration-stimulating factor by oral fibroblasts is described along with the heterogeneous distribution of extracellular matrix in the oral mucosa. The development of techniques for extracellular matrix localization in hard tissue is discussed.