Keynote Address: Therapeutic Innovation Derived from Basic Research of Dental Materials

Abstract Body: A biodegradable material that bonds to hard tissues such as bones and teeth is urgently needed for medical and dental applications in both tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. We developed a novel hard-tissue bioadhesive using biodegradable phosphopullulan. The polysaccharide ‘pullulan’ was chemically functionalized with dihydrogen phosphate groups to chemically bridge the biomaterial with the hard tissue via ionic binding of the phosphate functional groups to the calcium in apatite. Phosphopullulan bioadhesive shows a higher bond strength to apatite and titanium compared to polymethylmethacrylate and calcium phosphate cements. Our results reveal sufficient bone/dentin adaptation and inducible regeneration processes, which enable stable mechanical and functional repair of bone and tooth defects. Furthermore, phosphopullulan bioadhesives may be useful as a new drug delivery system. Phosphopullulan exhibited a controllable release pattern, which represents a unique drug release property. We are now developing two commercially available dental products for pulp capping and root canal therapies.