Research and development of demineralised dentin-derived collagen granule bone regeneration materials using animal teeth

The enamel that forms the outer layer of a tooth is the hardest substance in the human body and the structure of the teeth present an opportunity for investigation. For example, Dr Naoto Okubo, who has expertise in dentistry, is interested in the raw material from which the teeth are composed ‐ dentin. Dentin has a special structure known as ` tubules´ that only exists in teeth and can be said to be a communicating porous structure. There is potential that it could be used in the development of new implantable biomaterials. Okubo's current research is exploring whether dentin can be used as a material for building bioregenerative scaffolds. He is based in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical sciences, Department of Molecular and Cellular Medicine, Hokkaido University, Japan, and is Project Leader of the Bovine Demineralized Dentin Matrix (B-DDM) projects. One of the reasons that dentin is suitable as a material for bioregenerative scaffolds is because the most important quality for bioregenerative scaffolds is that they do not interfere with the blood supply when they have been implanted. In addition, it has the strength needed to be used for bioregenerative scaffolds. In their work to use dentin and its tubule structure for the development of bioregenerative scaffolds Okubo and the team are using dentin in such a way that enables them to remove some or all the inorganic components at the same time as maintaining the tissue structure. This means the foundation of the scaffold is mainly composed of type 1 collagen, which has excellent blood permeability and high natural strength.