Collagen-Based Biomaterials in Periodontal Regeneration: Current Applications and Future Perspectives of Plant-Based Collagen.

Collagen is the most widely distributed protein in human body. Within the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medical applications, collagen-based biomaterials have been extensively growing over the past decades. The focus of this review is mainly on periodontal regeneration. Currently, multiple innovations of collagen-based biomaterials have evolved, from hemostatic collagen sponges to bone/tissue regenerative scaffolds and injectable collagen matrices for gene or cell regenerative therapy. Collagen sources also differ from animal to marine and plant-extracted recombinant human type I collagen (rhCOL1). Animal-derived collagen has a number of substantiated concerns such as pathogenic contamination and transmission and immunogenicity, and rhCOL1 is a potential solution to those aforementioned issues. This review presents a brief overview of periodontal regeneration. Also, current applications of collagen-based biomaterials and their mechanisms for periodontal regeneration are provided. Finally, special attention is paid to mechanical, chemical, and biological properties of rhCOL1 in pre-clinical and clinical studies, and its future perspectives in periodontal regeneration are discussed.

Bioactivity of a Novel Polycaprolactone-Hydroxyapatite Scaffold Used as a Carrier of Low Dose BMP-2: An In Vitro Study.

Scaffolds of polycaprolactone-30% hydroxyapatite (PCL-30% HA) were fabricated using melt stretching and multilayer deposition (MSMD), and the in vitro response of osteoblasts to the scaffolds was assessed. In group A, the scaffolds were immersed in 10 µg/mL bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) solution prior to being seeded with osteoblasts, and they were cultured in the medium without BMP-2. In group B, the cell-scaffold constructs without BMP-2 were cultured in medium containing 10 µg/mL BMP-2. The results showed greater cell proliferation in group A. The upregulation of runt-related transcription factor 2 and osteocalcin genes correlated with the release of BMP-2 from the scaffolds. The PCL-30% HA MSMD scaffolds appear to be suitable for use as osteoconductive frameworks and BMP-2 carriers.

Usability assessment of an electronic health record in a comprehensive dental clinic.

In this paper we present the development and usability of an electronic health record (EHR) system in a comprehensive dental clinic.The graphic user interface of the system was designed to consider the concept of cognitive ergonomics.The cognitive task analysis was used to evaluate the user interface of the EHR by identifying all sub-tasks and classifying them into mental or physical operators, and to predict task execution time required to perform the given task. We randomly selected 30 cases that had oral examinations for routine clinical care in a comprehensive dental clinic. The results were based on the analysis of 4 prototypical tasks performed by ten EHR users. The results showed that on average a user needed to go through 27 steps to complete all tasks for one case. To perform all 4 tasks of 30 cases, they spent about 91 min (independent of system response time) for data entry, of which 51.8 min were spent on more effortful mental operators. In conclusion, the user interface can be improved by reducing the percentage of mental effort required for the tasks.