Research of Development of Restorative Material Using Enamel regenerated and CAD/CAM

2006 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 16390560
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: 補綴理工系歯学
• Research Institution: Kyushu University
• Principal Investigator: TERADA Yoshihiro Kyushu University, Oral Rehabilitation, Professor (30038898)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): NAGADOME Hatsumi Kyushu University, Oral Rehabilitation, Assistant Professor (30284516) ; HONDA Masaki The University of Tokyo, Medical Science, Assistant Professor (70361623)
• Project Period (FY): 2004 – 2006
• Keywords: Dental enamel / Tissue engineering / Cultured ameloblast progenitor

Research Abstract

In the field of dental medicine, improvement of Quality of Life (QOL) is required because tooth loss due to periodontal disease and dental caries with progression of aging continues to affect most elderly at some time in their lives. Therefore, it is essential for occlusal maintenance, oral hygiene and esthetic restorations at the highest levels to pursue the goal of treatment at dentistry. Application of tooth regeneration using tissue engineering concepts for convemtional dentistry is a promising biological approach to solving problems of tooth loss in elderly patients in prosthodontics.
We aimed at dental enamel regeneration using tissue engineering capable of clinical application. In the present study, we investigated the cultivation of odontogenic epithelial cells derived from porcine tooth buds and the reproduction of enamel bulk by stratification of these cell layers. Epithelial cells isolated from porcine tooth buds of third molar can be subcultured by 2 passages and expressed a melogenin which is specific for dental enamel, indicating that these cells have the characters of ameloblast progenitor.
Moreover the isolated odontogenic epithelial cells were seeded onto biodegradable polyglycolic acid (PGA) fiber membranes and cultured in D-MEM containing 10% fetal bovine serum for a week. After culturing, membranes were observed by the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and cell nuclear staining using fluorescent microscopy (EM). The result showed that epithelial cells were spread uniformly and colonilized on PGA membrane. Following that, ten membranes where epithelial cells colonilized were piled up and implanted into the omenta of the athymic rats. At 4 weeks after implantation, samples developed were dissected, prepared tissue sections and stained with hematoxylin and eosin (H-E). Regenerated tissues at inter-membrane were confirmed by observation of tissue sections by light microscopy.
In conclusion, our findings imply that tissue regeneration was achieved by the stratification of cultured odontogenic epithelial cells using biodegradable PGA membranes. Further comprehensive studies will be necessary to clarify the sequence of differentiation events and the cell lineage of enamel tissue regeneration for clinical application.