PERIODONTICS
Silk fibroin can be used in implant therapy as a
recent (2014) study suggests (53). Silk fibroin from
non-mulberry source was immobilized on titanium
surface, which led to improved cell adhesion and
differentiation, facilitating a better osteogenesis on
orthopedic implants (53). Peri-implant defects can
be successfully repaired using silk fibroin powder
mixed with Choukroun platelet-rich fibrin (PRF) (54).
The study on rabbits concluded that after inserting
dental implants and filling the peri-implant defects
with silk fibroin powder and Choukroun PRF, the
mean new bone formation is statistically significantly
higher than the one of the control (54). Another
silk fibroin and 4-hexylresorcinol incorporation
membrane was fabricated to fill peri-implant
defects and was succesfully used in rabbits (55). The
silk fibroin and 4-hexylresorcinol membrane lead
to 18.3 ± 1.9 mm mean bone regeneration, almost
double than the control group that showed 9.3 ±
0.9 mm of new bone in the histomorphometric
analysis (55). Moreover, premineralized silk scaffold
was used as a substrate for bone marrow stromal
cells to construct tissue-engineered bone for
mandibular bony defects in a vrat model (56).
Tissue engineered buccal mucosa was obtained
from oral keratinocytes and autologous canine
fibroblasts seeded onto silk fibroin matrices (57)
and the oral keratinocytes and fibroblasts exhibited
good biocompatibility with the silk fibroin matrices
(57). Additionally there were develloped silk fibroin
materials for wound repair in the buccal mucosa
(24). Ninety wounds to the bucal mucosa applied
to ratss were treated with silk fibroin films and
scaffolds. the wound shrinkage was significantly
lower as well as the growth of mucosal epithelial
cells was enhanced without any local or systemic
immunological incompatibility (24).
In summars , silk fibroin is a promising material
for future regeneration techniques in medicine.
Dentistry may very well profit a lot from the
different silk fibroin derived materials which are in
tests nowadays since a vast majority of the studies
concentrate on the regeneration of the osteodental tissues.
Acknowledgements: This
work received
financial support through the project „CERO
- CAREER PROFILE: ROMANIAN RESEARCH”,
contract no. HRD / 159 / 1.5 / S / 135760, financed
from the European Social Fund Operational
Programme Human Resources Development 20072013.
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