Cytocompatibility of Novel Algae-PLA Membranes For Guided Bone Regeneration At The Level of Types I, III And V Collagen Expression

Statement of the problem: In recent years, the development of innovative and increasingly optimized barrier membranes has focused on marine algae, which as a biopolymer can form a membrane composite together with polylactic acid, thus a combination could show numerous advantages such as antioxidant, antitumor, antibacterial, antiviral as well as antiallergic properties. Furthermore, algae can be produced in an ecologically sustainable way and offer an alternative for patients who refuse treatment with bovine or porcine derived membranes due to ethical or religious reasons.Objective: In this study, four different algal membranes were evaluated for their cytocompatibility with cultured human fibroblasts and osteoblasts.Materials & Methods: Mem-Lok® (Collagen Matrix, New Jersey, USA) as a resorbable collagen membrane and ArgonautTM (Botiss Biomaterials, Zossen, Germany) as a native pericardium GBR/GTR membrane served as reference membranes (RMs). As the negative control cells incubated with normal culture medium only were used. In addition to the cell viability and proliferation assays water soluble tetrazolium (WST), MTT and BrdU, a real time semiquantitative real time PCR (RT-PCR) was developed to investigate in vitro cytocompatibility at the level of types I, III and V collagen expression. A sandblasted- large grid-acid ached titanium surface (Dentcon® Dental Implant Systems, Ankara, Turkey) served as a positive inactive control group for osteoblastic cytocompatibility.Results: For human osteoblasts, the algal membranes showed very good proliferation levels in WST-1, MTT as well as BrdU, indicating cytocompatibility. Examination of the expression behavior of type I, type III, and type V collagen genes showed no evaluable results. However, the RT-PCR should be repeated with the incorporated optimizations to be able to make a statement regarding the success of bone, skin, and connective tissue regeneration after a possible application of the membrane in maxillofacial injury treatment.Conclusion: The investigated collagen types are essential for a proper healing of defects in both soft and bone tissue, as they have fundamental functions such as stability and structural integrity of the tissues

Initiated Chemical Vapor Deposition (iCVD) Functionalized Polylactic Acid-Marine Algae Composite Patch for Bone Tissue Engineering

The current study aimed to describe the fabrication of a composite patch by incorporating marine algae powders (MAPs) into poly-lactic acid (PLA) for bone tissue engineering. The prepared composite patch was functionalized with the co-polymer, poly (2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate-co-ethylene glycol dimethacrylate) (p(HEMA-co-EGDMA)) via initiated chemical vapor deposition (iCVD) to improve its wettability and overall biocompatibility. The iCVD functionalized MAP-PLA composite patch showed superior cell interaction of human osteoblasts. Following the surface functionalization by p(HEMA-co-EGDMA) via the iCVD technique, a highly hydrophilic patch was achieved without tailoring any morphological and structural properties. Moreover, the iCVD modified composite patch exhibited ideal cell adhesion for human osteoblasts, thus making the proposed patch suitable for potential biomedical applications including bone tissue engineering, especially in the fields of dentistry and orthopedy

Marine Algae Incorporated Polylactide Acid Patch: Novel Candidate for Targeting Osteosarcoma Cells without Impairing the Osteoblastic Proliferation

Biodegradable collagen-based materials have been preferred as scaffolds and grafts for diverse clinical applications in density and orthopedy. Besides the advantages of using such bio-originated materials, the use of collagen matrices increases the risk of infection transmission through the cells or the tissues of the graft/scaffold. In addition, such collagen-based solutions are not counted as economically feasible approaches due to their high production cost. In recent years, incorporation of marine algae in synthetic polymers has been considered as an alternative method for preparation grafts/scaffolds since they represent abundant and cheap source of potential biopolymers. Current work aims to propose a novel composite patch prepared by blending Sargassum vulgare powders (SVP) to polylactide (PLA) as an alternative to the porcine-derived membranes. SVP-PLA composite patches were produced by using a modified solvent casting method. Following detailed material characterization to assess the cytocompatibility, human osteoblasts (HOBs) and osteosarcoma cells (SaOS-2) were seeded on neat PLA and SVP-PLA patches. MTT and BrdU assays indicated a greater cytocompatibility and higher proliferation for HOBs cultured on SVP-PLA composite than for those cultured on neat PLA. SaOS-2 cells cultured on SVP-PLA exhibited a significant decrease in cell proliferation. The composite patch described herein exhibits an antiproliferative effect against SaOS-2 cells without impairing HOBs' adhesion and proliferation

Awareness and Knowledge of SARS-CoV-2 Infection among Dental Professionals According to the Turkish National Dental Guidelines

The objective of the current survey was to assess the awareness of the dental professionals according to the principals described by the Turkish Dental Association (TDA). A questionnaire including the socio-demographic data, specialties/academic degree, institutions/affiliations, the knowledge about COVID-19, the number of patients examined and dental treatments performed during the COVID-19 pandemic, the knowledge of protection based on the guidelines described by TDA, contamination with COVID-19 and the psychological complaints has been used. A total of 947 (63.1%) dentists enrolled the study. The results showed satisfactory knowledge about the COVID-19 etiology, mode of transmission and the pre-procedural cautions as the majority of them had a fair level of knowledge with significantly higher knowledge among specialized respondents. The participants have also recorded a good judgment towards performing the emergency dental treatment during the current COVID-19 pandemic which corresponds with the guidelines determined by TDA. Considering the updates on the transmission of COVID-19 and protective strategies, there is an urgent need for improvement of dentists’ knowledge about risk assessment via training programs. The incidence of positive testing among dental professionals also necessitates immediately testing of asymptomatic Turkish dental professionals

A Deep Learning Approach for Classification of Dentinal Tubule Occlusions

This study aimed to develop a novel deep learning model for reliable quantification of dentinal tubule occlusions instead of manual assessment techniques, and the performance of the model was compared to other methods in the literature. Ninety-six dentin samples were cut and prepared with desensitizing agents to occlude dentinal tubules on different levels. After obtaining images via scanning electron microscope (SEM), 2793 single dentinal tubule images with 48 × 48 resolution were segmented and labeled. Data augmentation techniques were applied for improvement in the learning rate. The augmented data having a total of 10700 images belonging to five classes were used as the network training dataset. The proposed convolutional neural network (CNN) is a class of deep learning model and was able to classify the degree of dentinal tubule occlusions into five classes with an overall accuracy rate of 90.24%. This paper primarily focuses on developing a CNN architecture for detecting the level of dentin tubule occlusions imaged by SEM. The results showed that the proposed CNN architecture is an immensely successful alternative and allowed for objective and automatic classification of segmented dentinal tubule images

Six-year clinical outcomes of implant-supported acrylic vs. ceramic superstructures according to the All-on-4 treatment concept for the rehabilitation of the edentulous maxilla

The aim of the current study was to document the long-term clinical results of the use of two prosthetic techniques for the rehabilitation of completely edentulous maxillae according to the 'All-on-Four' concept: Fixed, screw-retained prosthesis mounted on a chrome-molybdenum framework with (1) metal-ceramic veneers and (2) Acrylic prosthesis with acrylic resin prosthetic teeth. A total of 34 patients were assigned to subgroups according to their own preference of the superstructure type (ceramics [n: 17] or acrylic resin [n: 17]). Prosthetic complications, marginal bone loss, plaque accumulation, bleeding on probing, bite force and oral-health-related quality of life were assessed over a period of 6 years. Marginal bone loss around implants of the ceramic group remained well within the limits for 'success', as defined by the 2007 Pisa consensus over the time (1.43 ± 0.35 mm). However, marginal bone loss was significantly more pronounced around the implants in the acrylic group (2.15 ± 0.30) and the difference between two groups was statistically significant (p: 0.00). Bleeding on probing and plaque accumulation showed also positive correlation with marginal bone loss. Both acrylic and ceramic suprastructures appeared to be equivalent after 6 years; however, ceramic suprastructures revealed superior clinical results in terms of bone loss and plaque accumulation. Current study determines the long-term clinical outcomes of different prosthetic management alternatives in All-on-Four and aids to increase dental professionals' ability to meet the patients' expectations