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Implant TRIBUNE The World’s Event Newspaper · Asia Pacific Edition PUBLISHED IN HONG KONG www.dental-tribune.asia VOL. 15, NO. 11 Nobel Biocare announces entry into metal-free implant market “The first truly metal-free, two-piece screw-retained implant solution.” By DTI MADRID, Spain: At the 2017 EAO congress, Nobel Biocare has an- nounced that it has entered into a partnership agreement with Dentalpoint, a leader in ceramic dental implants, to add a zirconia implant solution to its portfolio. According to Nobel Biocare President Hans Geiselhöringer, the implant range is “the first truly metal-free, two-piece screw-re- tained implant solution” and there- fore will provide a new option in ad- dition to Nobel Biocare’s leading range of titanium dental implants with the clinically proven TiUnite surface. With 275 million potential edentulous patients around the world, the innovations from Dental- point, known for its ZERAMEX im- plant brand, are intended to help clinicians meet the growing de- mand for metal-free solutions. In further news, Nobel Biocare released the findings of the largest meta-analysis of a single implant brand to date. It has confirmed the clinical success of the TiUnite sur- face, which was launched 17 years ago and has been evaluated in over 465 publications featuring more than 89,500 implants. Published in the July/August issue of the International Journal of Nobel Biocare President Hans Geiselhöringer and dentists Drs Stefan Holst and Sandro Matter at the EAO press conference (from left to right). Oral and Maxillofacial Implants, the review was conducted by Profs. Matthias Karl of Saarland University in Germany and Tomas Albrektsson of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. They ana- lysed the results of 106 peer- reviewed publications of prospec- tive clinical studies assessing im- plants with the TiUnite surface, including 2,804 implants and 4,694 patients. The results have confirmed that implants with the TiUnite sur- face have a remarkably low early failure rate and support long-term clinical survival. In the review, early implant and patient level sur- vival rates both exceeded 99 per cent at one year, and the late im- plant level survival rate was esti- mated at 95.1 per cent (91.5 per cent at patient level) after ten years. “This meta-analysis unequivo- cally confirms what extensive in- ternal testing and external valida- tion have documented for over 15 years—that the TiUnite surface supports peri-implant health, bone maintenance and overall success long-term,” said Geiselhöringer. In addition, Nobel Biocare an- nounced a new partnership with Dr Alex Kirsch from Germany. The details of this project are yet to be released. Sequencing of sea cucumber genome may help with tissue regeneration By DTI QINGDAO, China: Researchers at the Institute of Oceanology Chinese Academy of Sciences have devel- oped a new high-definition se- quence of the sea cu- cumber’s ge- netic ma- terial, or genome. Owing to the sea cucumber’s capacity to regrow body parts and internal organs, knowledge of its genome could aid the understanding of regeneration and determine whether its re- growth capabil- ity can offer insights into tissue regener- ation and other areas of human medicine. In the study, the researchers ob- tained a reference genome covering approximately 91.47 per cent of the genome size. The knowledge of the complete genome of a sea cucumber could potentially provide a unique framework for studies that seek to understand cell and tissue regener- ation, treat organ failure and alle- viate symptoms of ageing. Sea cucumbers form one class of echinoderms, a group of marine animals that includes sea urchins and starfish too. Echinoderms and chordates (a closely related group under which humans fall) share a feature that distinguishes them from most other animals: they are deuterostomes, a group in which the anus, rather than the mouth, forms first in development. Sea cu- cumbers are unique among echino- derms in that they do not have a hardened calcium exoskeleton and they have the capacity to regener- ate damaged or lost body parts and viscera to a much greater extent than sea urchins or starfish. As a strategy to scare off preda- tors, sea cucumbers can expel their viscera, which they can then regen- erate within several weeks. The re- searchers found a group of dupli- cated genes, which they termed PSP94-like genes, that were specifi- cally expressed in the regenerating intestines of the sea cucumber and had no corresponding genes in other echinoderms, suggesting that these genes may be crucial to the animals’ ability to quickly regrow their viscera. A second group of genes, called fibrinogen-related proteins, were also duplicated and highly expressed during regener- ation, indicating that they likely contribute to this ability as well. In addition to possible medical benefits, the genome sequence helps explain why the sea cucum- ber has such a radically different skeletal structure from other echi- noderms and may be useful for un- derstanding evolution of the ani- mal kingdom. The study, titled “The sea cu- cumber genome provides insights into morphological evolution and visceral regeneration”, was pub- lished in the open-access journal PLOS Biology on 12 October. © ChristianChan/Shutterstock.com