Center for Craniofacial Molecular Biology, Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA.
Acta Biomater. 2013 Jul;9(7):7289-97. doi: 10.1016/j.actbio.2013.04.004. Epub 2013 Apr 6.
Biomimetic reconstruction of tooth enamel is a significant topic of study in materials science and dentistry as a novel approach to the prevention, restoration, and treatment of defective enamel. We have developed a new amelogenin-containing chitosan hydrogel for enamel reconstruction that works through amelogenin supramolecular assembly, stabilizing Ca-P clusters and guiding their arrangement into linear chains. These amelogenin Ca-P composite chains further fuse with enamel crystals and eventually evolve into enamel-like co-aligned crystals, anchored to the natural enamel substrate through a cluster growth process. A dense interface between the newly grown layer and natural enamel was formed and the enamel-like layer improved the hardness and elastic modulus compared with etched enamel. We anticipate that this chitosan hydrogel will provide effective protection against secondary caries because of its pH-responsive and antimicrobial properties. Our studies introduce an amelogenin-containing chitosan hydrogel as a promising biomaterial for enamel repair and demonstrate the potential of applying protein-directed assembly to biomimetic reconstruction of complex biomaterials.
仿生重建牙釉质是材料科学和牙科领域的一个重要研究课题，它为预防、修复和治疗有缺陷的牙釉质提供了一种新方法。我们开发了一种新型的含釉原蛋白壳聚糖水凝胶，用于牙釉质重建，该水凝胶通过釉原蛋白超分子组装，稳定 Ca-P 簇并引导其排列成线性链。这些釉原蛋白 Ca-P 复合链进一步与牙釉质晶体融合，并最终演变成类似牙釉质的共取向晶体，通过簇生长过程锚定在天然牙釉质基底上。新生长层与天然牙釉质之间形成了致密的界面，并且与酸蚀牙釉质相比，类似牙釉质的层提高了硬度和弹性模量。我们预计，由于这种壳聚糖水凝胶具有 pH 响应和抗菌性能，它将为预防继发龋提供有效的保护。我们的研究介绍了一种含釉原蛋白壳聚糖水凝胶作为牙釉质修复的有前途的生物材料，并展示了应用蛋白导向组装进行复杂生物材料仿生重建的潜力。
