One of the main success factors in dental implants is the condition of the gums around the implant. A long-term success rate for dental implants requires adequate, healthy alveolar bone. In cases where the lack of alveolar bone makes implantation difficult, the bone must be adequately regenerated to receive the implant, either before or during implant surgery. The development of the bone barrier coating material for implantation by a Korean research team is expected to improve the success rate of alveolar bone grafts.
Three research teams led by Professor Heung-jun Cha from the Department of Chemical Engineering at Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Professor Yoon Ki-ju from the College of Convergence at Kyungbuk National University (KNU), and Professor Sang-ho-jun from the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at KNU Korea University Annam have jointly developed a bone barrier coating material for dental implants that inhibits soft tissue cell invasion, attracts bone progenitor cells including osteoblasts, and sustainably releases bone recombinant protein-2 (BMP-2), significantly facilitating bone regeneration.
GBR is widely used in dental implant placement. It maintains space for bone growth and prevents cells other than osteogenic cells, such as fibroblasts, from filling in the sites of bone defects, allowing bone to grow without interference from non-osteogenic cells. However, the GBR approach is still unlikely to be successful and requires a longer treatment time for those patients with inadequate bone quantity and quality. Depending on the configurations of the defect sites, blocking invasion of non-osteogenic cells using barrier membranes alone is not sufficient to significantly facilitate bone regeneration.
The joint research team first loaded BMP-2 on top of bioengineered materials in which an RGD peptide, a cell recognition element capable of attracting cells, is fused with a mussel adhesive protein (MAP) that maintains adhesion strength in a moist environment. Then the team coated a titanium mesh membrane (Ti-mesh) with it. According to the research results, the coated septum membrane showed cell occlusion as fibroblasts could not penetrate the membrane. The team also found that it induced a high level of bone differentiation in a short period of time within the membrane by the high growth of mesenchymal stem cells and the release of BMP-2.
Application of a MAP-based barrier coating developed for bone regeneration directed to a titanium membrane in a rat dome defect model showed that the coating nearly doubled the speed of bone tissue regeneration.
Professor Heung Jun Cha, who led the research, said: “This research was conducted based on a long-term research collaboration of the joint research team in the field of bone regeneration for implant placement. Its findings revealed the potential to improve the success rate of implant treatment regardless of bone condition.” He added that the findings of the research could also be applied to regenerate a variety of hard tissues.
The search results have been published in the electronic version of Bioengineering and translational medicine, a distinguished journal in the field of bioengineering and regenerative medicine. The study was conducted as part of a dental technology research and development project under the Korea Health Technology Research and Development Project funded by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the High Value Food Technology Development Program funded by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, and the BK21 Four Program by the Research Foundation. korean national.
