Dental News - Scientists unlock secrets of enamel formation

Dental Tribune International

Fri. 12 August 2011

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PITTSBURGH & ANN HARBOR, Mich./CAMBRIDGE, Mass., USA: Enamel is known to be one of the hardest tissues in the human body. Researchers from the Forsyth Institute, as well as the universities of Pittsburgh and Michigan in the U.S. have reported that they have documented the process through which the highly resistant dental tissue is created. According to the scientists, their observations could help in the development of new materials for medical and dental applications.

Using a cryoelectron microscope, the scientists found that amelogenin, a regulatory extracellular matrix protein that makes up between 20 and 30 per cent of early enamel, is able to arrangeing itself stepwise in higher clusters. These clusters then stabilize and organize calcium phosphate crystals in parallel arrays and fuse them together.

The result is an arrangement of needle-shaped mineral particles that resembles a complex ceramic microfabric, the researchers said.

They added that more research is needed to fully understand how the process works but the findings could make it possible to arrange molecules in a similar fashion in laboratories to build novel biomedical materials for restorative dentistry, amongst others application.

The special properties of other macromolecules like biopolymers are already used by other industries for producing biodegradable packaging and building materials.

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