Lateral Ramus Cortical Bone Plate in Alveolar Cleft Osteoplasty: Concomitant Use of Buccal Fat Pad Derived Cells and Autogenous Bone in a Preliminary Study

Patients enrolled in the present study were suffering from alveolar cleft and had previously received orthodontic treatment and only required secondary alveolar grafting. The buccal fat pad derived stem cells (BFPSCs) were harvested from buccal fat pad tissues of the patients. Patients were divided into 3 groups. Group A , the control group, was treated with anterior iliac crest (AIC) spongy bone to fill defects, followed by coverage with collagen membrane. Group B was treated with lateral ramus cortical bone cage (LRCP), used to create a protected healing space by fixing it to adjacent walls of the cleft defect. Group C was treated with (AIC) as in Group 1, but BFP-derived MSCs cultured over NBBM were put over the spongy bone and covered with a collagen membrane.Passage 3 BFPSCs were loaded on the implants ( Cerabone (Botiss, Berlin, Germany) a natural bovine bone mineral (NBBM); a granular biomaterial with a 200- to 850-µm particle size) 3 days prior to transplantation.Cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) was obtained after 6 months.