Efficacy and safety of P-4 for the treatment of periodontal defects in dogs.

Objectives: This study's aim was to investigate the safety and performance of a self-assembling peptide matrix (SAPM) P-4 for the treatment of periodontal disease in a controlled pre-clinical study.

Materials And Methods: Acute buccal bony dehiscence defects (LxW: 5 × 3 mm) were surgically created on the distal root of four teeth on one mandible side of 7 beagle dogs followed by another identical surgery 8 weeks later on the contralateral side. SAPM P-4 (with and without root conditioning with 24% EDTA (T1, T2)), Emdogain® (C) and a sham intervention (S) were randomly applied on the four defects at each time point. Four weeks after the second surgery and treatment, the animals were sacrificed, the mandibles measured by micro-computed tomography (µ-CT) and sections of the tissue were stained and evaluated histologically.

Results: Clinically and histologically, no safety concerns or pathological issues due to the treatments were observed in any of the study groups at any time point. All groups showed overall similar results after 4 and 12 weeks of healing regarding new cementum, functionality of newly formed periodontal ligament and recovery of height and volume of the new alveolar bone and mineral density.

Conclusion: A controlled clinical study in humans should be performed in a next step as no adverse effects or safety issues, which might affect clinical usage of the product, were observed.

Clinical Relevance: The synthetic SAPM P-4 may offer an alternative to the animal-derived product Emdogain® in the future.