Poster N20 - Antimicrobial Peptide Hydrogel As a Supportive Agent for Periodontal Wound Healing

Introduction: The diverse structural adaptations in self-assembling peptides present numerous functional opportunities as the field of dentistry progresses with technological and bioengineering advancements. Administered as an efficient antimicrobial injectable hydrogel, these peptides hold the potential to improve the prevention of gum disease. Periodontitis, a condition that significantly harms the gums, leads to the destruction of soft tissue around the teeth. Periodontitis will prove to be ideal for assessing the response of induced gum disease to peptide treatment. With the use of advanced technology, specifically CT imaging, and analysis, one can detect the prominence of the induced infection before and after the treatment with the self-assembling peptides. Narrowing down the length, width, and other parameters of the infected gum through analysis on live scans will quantify the accuracy of the self-assembling peptides as inserted inside of the tooth structure. Exploring periodontitis through the effects of synthesized self-assembling peptides revealed through CT imaging will benefit the future of the transformative dental field by engineering an antimicrobial injectable hydrogel.

Materials and

Methods: This in vivo study, approved by the Rutgers-NJIT IACUC committee, specifically targets two Female Wistar rats (200 -233 g) that were used due to their analogous molar anatomy compared to that of a human molar. In the study, the peptides were examined through the conditions of induced infection and plaque. The animals underwent surgery to induce infectious microbes causing plaque formation around the tooth structure of the first and second left molars of the maxilla with the contralateral molars kept as control. The periodontitis model undergoes a distinguishable type of surgery as a “cap” made of a small suture securely wrapped around the tooth as its method of plaque induction. The animal’s living conditions consist of food consumption and saliva production, the surrounding area of the cap accumulates plaque and infection surrounding the gums, underneath the gums, and the outer tooth structure as a whole. The second set of surgery, the treatment with peptides, was completed after confirmation of periodontitis. The peptides were manipulated to form a hydrogel, and the hydrogels were injected around the affected teeth. CT scans were performed at the designated timepoints. The first set of scans are live scans taken after the plaque induction, before treatment. Similarly, after treatment surgery, the animals undergo a second round of live scans that determine if the infection shows signs of recession and how much recession is occurring. The distance between the enamel-dentin junction (EDJ) and alveolar bone crest (ABC) was taken as clinical measurement of bone loss.

Results, Conclusions, and Discussions: The hydrogels are composed of peptide nanostructures that stimulate or reduce the host inflammatory response. In this prospective study, once the animals underwent treatment, several observations and scans demonstrated that the plaque and infection declined, allowing for nerve bundles, blood vessels, and overall tissue regeneration to start taking place. The results demonstrate that there is a noticeable improvement of gum recession, up to 40% 28 days after treatment on the buccal and lingual side. Furthermore, our antimicrobial hydrogel shows to be effective in reducing the bacterial load, reducing the inflammatory response in the gum tissue and allowing for alveolar bone regeneration.
The injectable hydrogel formulation composed of pro-angiogenic, degradable self-assembling peptides (SAPs) are engineered to facilitate the regeneration of gingival tissue. These hydrogels hold potential for promoting dental pulp tissue repair and regeneration by providing a supportive microenvironment for odontogenic differentiation. We are in the process of conducting periodontitis study using a swine model and will be expanding into other dental-related issues to continue expanding the dental regeneration field.

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