Regeneration of tooth-like hydroxyapatite depended on amelogenin functional section monolayer: A new approach for tooth repair

Tooth defect due to caries, trauma, or acid corrosion are common in mankind. Ceramics, metal and resin were used to repaired tooth defect in the past hundred years, but they cannot instead enamel and dentin in depth in clinic usage for the difference in structure and element. So the formation of organized nanocrystals that resemble enamel is crucial for successful enamel remineralization. Now synthesizing a mimicking structure of human enamel using acellular methods has attracted much interest from research groups who have tried using recombinant enamel making proteins like amelogenin, surfactants, to mimic the biomineralization process to restore the enamel layer. Since amelogenin can be used in the assembly of functional nanostructures, we hypothesis that rationally designed β-sheet-forming peptides that spontaneously form three-dimensional fibrillar scaffolds in response to specific environmental triggers may potentially be used in inducing tooth-like hydroxyapatite crystal ex vivo which important to treatment/prevention of dental caries, via bioactive surface groups.