[Periodontal regeneration: the use of polypeptide growth factors]

Polypeptide growth factors are a class of potent natural biologic mediators which regulate many of the activities of wound healing including cell proliferation, migration and metabolism. Periodontal regeneration is thought to require the migration and proliferation of periodontal ligament cells on the root surface. In fact, repopulation of the detached root surface by cells from periodontal ligament (PDL) is a prerequisite for new attachment formation. Many studies suggested that Polypeptide Growth Factors (PGF) such as Insulin-like Growth Factor I (IGF-I), Platelet Derived Growth Factor (PDGF), Transforming Growth Factor B (TGF-B), Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF), are important mediators of cellular events in wound healing. Studies in vitro analysed the mitogenic effects determined on periodontal ligament cells by growth factors using (3H) Thymidine incorporation during DNA synthesis. The results suggested that recombinant human PDGF and IGF-I stimulate the proliferation of PDL fibroblastic cells and the combination of these growth factors showed a synergistic effect revealing the highest mitogenic effect among all individual growth factors as well as any combination of the growth factors tested. Furthermore these studies demonstrated that rh-PDGF and IGF-I stimulate chemotaxis of PDL fibroblastic cells, and supported a role for TGF-B as a regulator of the mitogenic response to PDGF in these cells. Other studies in vivo showed periodontal tissues regeneration introducing mixtures of recombinant human platelet derived growth factor and insulin-like growth factor into lesions of experimentally induced periodontitis in beagle dogs and monkeys.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)