OsseoIntegration: Improved with Growth Hormone?

According to a group of Spanish researchers: “The use of the growth hormone in oral implantology has managed to regenerate the bone and hasten the integration between the bone base and the dental implant. The process reduces from six months to two weeks the wait time to place the crown which replaces the lost tooth on the oral implant.”

The research was the result of a doctoral thesis “Growth hormone and osteointegration in the oral cavity” by Cecilia Vander Worf Úbeda, supervised by Professors Antonio Cutando Soriano and Gerardo Gómez Moreno (School of Odontology of the University of Granada, Spain).

Hastened biointegration
The research carried out by Cecilia Vander Worf obtained a good and fast biointegration, which consists of “the direct biochemical joint between the raw bone and the surface of the implant, demonstrable through electronic microscopy, irrespective of any mechanical joint mechanism”.

Osteointegration requires the formation of new bone around the implant, a process resulting from remodelling the interior of the bone tissue. “The process, ” says Vander Worf, “starts with the osteoclasts, the cells responsible for reabsorbing the necrotic area originated by bone milling during the preparation of the bone recipient bed. Together with them, vascular neoformation will provide the cell elements, the osteoblasts, which will create new bone able to interact with the titanium oxide layer of the implant for the biological integration of it”.

The doctoral thesis has been carried out in the Framework of the Research Project “study of the synergism between Melatonin and Growth Hormone (GH) on the processes of osteointegration in dental implants and bone regeneration in the oral cavity”, financed by the Spanish Ministry of Health and Consumptiom, the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science, the Carlos III Health Institute and the Andalusian Council.

The results of this work have been published in different papers in the last years; the most recent are:

-Cutando A, Gómez Moreno G, Arana C, et al. Melatonin stimulates osteointegration of dental implants. J Pineal Res. 2008 Feb 19; Vol. 49.

-Cutando A, Gómez-Moreno G, Arana C, et al. Melatonin reduces oxidative stress because of tooth removal. J Pineal Res. 2007 Apr; 42(4):419-20.

Reference: Department of Stomatology of the School of Odontology of the UGR. Professors Cecilia Vander Worf Úbeda (cecivan@correo.ugr.es), Antonio Cutando Soriano (acutando@ugr.es) and Gerardo Gómez Moreno (ggomez@ugr.es).

OsseoNews.com Editor´s Note:
Interestingly, when searching thru PubMed for additional research related to growth hormones, we came across the following study:
Systemically administered human growth hormone improves initial implant stability: an experimental study in the rabbit.Stenport VF, Olsson B, Morberg P, Törnell J, Johansson CB.
Department of Biomaterials/Handicap Research, Gothenburg University.
This study concluded: “Growth hormone has an initial beneficial effect on implant integration; however, owing to rapid antibody formation, this study did not demonstrate whether this effect remains in the long term.”