Temporal-controlled Release of Bioactive Molecules for Dentin-pulp Engineering Using Nano-systems

The two available current treatment options for dental pulp infection of a tooth are either tooth extraction or root canal treatment. The root canal treatment leads to permanent loss in pulp vitality and compromise in the mechanical integrity of tooth. A potential method to restore pulp vitality is by stimulating the endogenous stem cells from apical papilla (SCAP) of tooth, so as to participate in tissue regeneration or repair. Bioactive molecules (BM) play a key role in tissue regeneration, although their application in tissue engineering presents different challenges. Some of the major challenges of using exogenous BM are their short half-life and their requirement in a spatiotemporal controlled manner over a prolonged period during regeneration or repair. This study was aimed to (1) synthesize and characterize nano-systems capable of releasing mono/dual BM in a temporal-controlled manner over a minimum period of two weeks and (2) assess the ability of these nano-systems to enhance migration, adherence, proliferation and odontogenic differentiation of SCAP in root canal dentin. Two bioactive polymers, namely chitosan and sodium alginate were used owing to their inherent physicochemical and biological properties. Bovine serum albumin (BSA) and dexamethasone (Dex) were discretely loaded on chitosan nanoparticles (CSnp) by two methods, namely encapsulation and adsorption. BSA encapsulated CSnp (BSA-CSnpI) showed release of BSA for four weeks and significantly enhanced alkaline phosphatase activity of SCAP (pPh.D.2018-11-16 00:00:0