By Liu Yilin, Oriental News, Jan. 27: Dental remineralization treatment using calcium phosphate materials is a common strategy for repairing early demineralized enamel, but the complex dynamic nature of the oral environment often limits its effectiveness. Rapid remineralization is considered an effective way to cope with this challenge. However, mineral precursors are often difficult to achieve rapid conversion due to the presence of necessary stabilizers. Recently, a team of chief physician Chen Xi, director of the Department of Preventive Dentistry at the Ninth People's Hospital of Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, published a paper entitled “Glycerol-stabilized calcium phosphate clusters for rapid remineralization of tooth enamel via water-triggered transformation” in Nature Communications (impact factor 14.7). For the first time, the preparation of stabilized ultra-small-sized calcium phosphate clusters in the glycerol system is reported, and the stabilization mechanism of glycerol molecules for the formation of calcium phosphate precursors therein is revealed. The material can be “transformed on demand” by contacting salivary water in the oral environment to realize rapid restoration of tooth enamel.

　　In recent years, many systems have been developed in the field of dental remineralization therapy for the stabilization or growth regulation of calcium phosphate mineral precursors, including amino acids/peptides/proteins, polymers, organic small molecules, etc., but there are still a lot of difficulties that need to be overcome before they can be used in the clinic, including the safety of the materials. Most of the research is still in vitro, and the application steps are very cumbersome and over-idealized; the material production process is complicated and lengthy, which limits the large-scale production and application; and the mineralization rate of the materials needs to be continuously optimized.

　　In order to solve the above challenges, Chen Xi's team, together with Chen Feng's group at the Fudan University Stomatological Hospital and Lu Bingqiang's group at the Tenth People's Hospital of Tongji University, successfully prepared glycerol stabilized calcium phosphate clusters (GCPCs) of 1-2 nm in glycerol-dominated solvents. GCPC). In vitro and animal experiments showed that GCPC was able to rapidly enter the defective enamel sites at the nanometer/micron scale within a short period of time (30 min) and formed a dense hydroxyapatite repair layer, which significantly restored the mechanical properties of the enamel.

　　This process is not only faster than conventional materials, but also shows good restorative effects in both static and dynamic environments. In addition to this, GCPC has obvious advantages in a simple preparation process; it does not require special pretreatment steps such as drying the enamel surface and excessively long material adsorption/resting time; it is inexpensive and biocompatible, and it is expected to be used for large-scale production and preparation as well as clinical application in dental remineralization therapy.