Chemical Research in Chinese Universities ›› 2012, Vol. 28 ›› Issue (5): 916-920 .

• Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Characterization of Nanostructures in Acellular Cementum of Human Tooth Roots

GAO Yong-bo1, LIU Ming-xia1, SUN Zhi-qiang2, ZHANG Kai2, DONG Feng-xia2, SUN Hong-chen1, YANG Bai2   

  1. 1. Department of Oral Pathology, School of Stomatology, Jilin University, Changchun 130041, P. R. China;
    2. State Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials, College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, P. R. China
  • Received:2011-11-14 Revised:2012-02-29 Online:2012-09-25 Published:2012-09-07
  • Supported by:
    Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.30830108) and the National Basic Research Program of China(No.2007CB936402).

Abstract: Determining the microstructure in human cementum might help us design new kinds of replacement materials for the treatment of teeth injury and disease. The authors characterized the nanostructures in the cementum of health human teeth via scanning electronic microscopy(SEM). It was found that the acellular cementum is mainly composed of two kinds of nanostructures―inorganic nanoparticles and organic nanofibers. And the inorganic nanoparticles show a tendency to arrange along the organic nanofibers. Based on the micro-molding in capillary strategy, the distribution of organic component in acellular cementum was copied with UV curable resin. After removing the inorganic nanoparticles by acid etching, many isolated spindle shape nanopores were left in polymer, which su- ggested that the inorganic nanoparticles should have been isolated by the organic component in cementum, and should be oval or nanosheet in shape. We hope the present work could provide reference for the biomimetic preparation of tissue engineering materials, and help us design new types of tooth implant.

Key words: Acellular cementum, Nanostructure, Root dentin