Promotion of natural tooth repair by small molecule GSK3 antagonists

• DOI: 10.1038/srep39654
• Publication Date: 2017-01-09T10:05:46Z
• Authors: Vitor C. M. Neves; Rebecca Babb; Dhivya Chandrasek...; Paul T. Sharpe
• Keywords: 610; Tooth Injuries; Dental Caries; Article; Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3; Mice; 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; Dentin; 617; Animals; Collagen; Wnt Signaling Pathway; Cells, Cultured; Dental Pulp

AbstractThe restoration of dentine lost in deep caries lesions in teeth is a routine and common treatment that involves the use of inorganic cements based on calcium or silicon-based mineral aggregates. Such cements remain in the tooth and fail to degrade and thus normal mineral volume is never completely restored. Here we describe a novel, biological approach to dentine restoration that stimulates the natural formation of reparative dentine via the mobilisation of resident stem cells in the tooth pulp. Biodegradable, clinically-approved collagen sponges are used to deliver low doses of small molecule glycogen synthase kinase (GSK-3) antagonists that promote the natural processes of reparative dentine formation to completely restore dentine. Since the carrier sponge is degraded over time, dentine replaces the degraded sponge leading to a complete, effective natural repair. This simple, rapid natural tooth repair process could thus potentially provide a new approach to clinical tooth restoration.