Engineering of biomimetic mineralized layer formed on the surface of natural dental enamel

Abstract

The problem of engineering a biomimetic mineralized layer on the surface of native dental tissue (bio-template) was considered in our work. The formation of the mineralized layer on a biotemplate is achieved with the use of nanocrystalline carbonate-substituted calcium hydroxyapatite (HAp), calcium alkali, and a complex of polyfunctional organic and polar amino acids. By applying the set of structural and spectroscopic methods of analysis we have confirmed the formation of a mineralized biomimetic HAp layer on the surface of bio-template with properties resembling those of natural hard tissue. The thickness of the biomimetic mineralized layer varies from 300 to 500 nm, while the direction of some ncHAp nanocrystals coincides with that of the apatite crystals in the enamel. We also demonstrated that the engineered mineralized HAp layer was characterized by homogeneous micromorphology and enhanced nanohardness in the region of the enamel rods exceeding those of native enamel. The development of a strategy for biomimetic engineering and a technique for enamel surface pre-treatment to enable tissue mineralization has huge potential in dental applications. © 2022 The Authors