Development of a new approach to the periodontal regeneration

Aim or purpose: Periodontitis is highly prevalent in humans. As the current therapies are often inefficient, even bone grafts or growth/differentiation factors, Tissue Engineering (TE) could an alternative. Thus, a tissue-engineered double layer scaffold (DLS) based on starch+poly-caprolactone (SPCL) enriched with adipose stem cells (ASCs) was developed for periodontal regeneration.
Materials and methods: A SPCL membrane which aims at acting as GTR barrier, and a wet-spun fibre mesh without and with osteoconductive silanol groups were combined to obtain the DLS. DLS was characterized by Fourier Transmission Infra-red (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), mechanical and degradation tests. Canine ASCs were seeded/cultured onto the scaffolds and then characterized by MTS, DNA quantification, SEM, PCR and ALP quantification. The same cells were subcutaneously transplanted in mice and assessed the host response. Ultimately, DLS were implanted in a mandibular rodent defect and compared to collagen commercial membranes. After 8 weeks, new bone formation was quantified by the Donath technique.
Results: Functionalization with silanol groups was confirmed by FTIR. DLS exhibited adequate tensile strength and degradability and provided a good support for canine ASCs adhesion and proliferation. SPCL-DLS-Si revealed higher expression of osteoblast genes. These cells also did not induce any immunogenic reaction
in the host. Histomorphometry revealed that SPCL-DLS-Si induced higher bone formation compared to collagen.
Conclusion: SPCL-DLS-Si bioactive matrix with the canine ASCs revealed good potential to be used in periodontal and bone TE strategies, and could also be proposed in non-autologous canine preclinical studies before human clinical applications.