A New Candidate for Guided Tissue Regeneration: Biomimetic Eggshell Membrane

Abstract

Periodontal disease that involves the deterioration of tooth supporting structures is the primary cause of tooth loss among adults. Guided tissue regeneration (GTR) technique is a commonly used surgical procedure for the treatment of periodontal diseases by using a barrier membrane. Natural eggshell membrane (ESM) is a semi-permeable membrane consisting of two individual layers with fibrous meshwork structures. With the aid of successful preparation of soluble eggshell membrane proteins (SEP) from natural ESM in the previous study, we hypothesized that one new type of biomimetic nanofibrous eggshell membrane could be successfully constructed by sequential electrospinning method. This proposed membrane is composed of two interconnected nanofibrous layers with different density and porosity which can mimic the composition, morphology and structure of natural ESM. It is expected to greatly enhance the periodontal tissue regeneration as well as physically maintain the space for tissue repair, thus to be a promising and cost-effective GTR membrane candidate.