Tapping basement membrane motifs: Oral junctional epithelium for surface-mediated soft tissue attachment to prevent failure of percutaneous devices.

Teeth, long-lasting percutaneous organs, feature soft tissue attachment through adhesive structures, hemidesmosomes, in the junctional epithelium basement membrane adjacent to teeth. This soft tissue attachment prevents bacterial infection of the tooth despite the rich - and harsh - microbial composition of the oral cavity. Conversely, millions of percutaneous devices (catheters, dental, and orthopedic implants) fail from infection yearly.

Antimicrobial and enzyme-responsive multi-peptide surfaces for bone-anchored devices.

Functionalization of dental and orthopedic implants with multiple bioactivities is desirable to obtain surfaces with improved biological performance and reduced infection rates. While many approaches have been explored to date, nearly all functionalized surfaces are static, i.e.

Surface Immobilization Chemistry of a Laminin-Derived Peptide Affects Keratinocyte Activity.

Many chemical routes have been proposed to immobilize peptides on biomedical device surfaces, and in particular, on dental implants to prevent peri-implantitis. While a number of factors affect peptide immobilization quality, an easily controllable factor is the chemistry used to immobilize peptides. These factors affect peptide chemoselectivity, orientation, etc.