The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Institutes for Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) awarded three Iowa dental researchers, Hongli Sun, associate professor in the Iowa Institute for Oral Health Research and the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery; Shaoping Zhang, assistant professor in the Department of Periodontics; and Erliang Zeng, associate professor in the Iowa Institute for Oral Health Research, a $660,000 exploratory grant to investigate an innovative strategy for treating bone loss that tends to accompany periodontitis. 

Periodontitis is a common ailment for many Americans, and almost 10% of those with periodontitis have severe periodontitis. This form of the disease often results in patients losing bone and teeth, and it also complicates dental implant procedures that require bone to regrow around the dental implant.

Drawing from Sun’s tissue engineering strategies to regenerate bone, these three researchers are developing an innovate strategy to both mitigate bone loss that occurs because of periodontitis and regenerate bone tissue once has been lost to the disease. Using an injectable and biodegradable hydrogel as a delivery mechanism, a specially designed metabolite of Alpha-Ketoglutarate (AKG) will be locally delivered to the site of the damage to the bone. 

The metabolite AKG is commonly consumed as a dietary supplement and has long been seen as a mechanism for improving lifespan and healthspan of both animals and humans because it improves protein synthesis, thereby enhancing bone formation. Dietary use affects the whole body equally, however, and thus cannot target a particular location that might need more focused attention, like the bone tissue lost because of periodontitis. Thus, the research team developed a particular kind of AKG such that it enhances and further supports bone regeneration at the precise site where it is needed when delivered by an injectable and biodegradable hydrogel.

This exploratory grant lays the foundation for the team to refine and develop this strategy for greater use in periodontitis prevention and treatment and for other uses where bone regeneration is needed.

Research reported on this website was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the National Institutes of Dental and Craniofacial Research under Award Number 1R21DE033019-01A1. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.