President of Portugal welcomes attendees at EAO 2019 Opening ceremony promises attendees an engaging learning atmosphere. news At the opening ceremony, Dr Gil Alcoforado, chair of the 2019 EAO congress, officially announced that the 28th annual scientific meeting is underway. With attendees who have travelled from across Europe and be- yond to participate, the congress is designed to impress and 130 speak- ers will be presenting a wide range of lectures, hands-on workshops and clinical video sessions. EAO 2019 is being held under the High Patronage of the President of the Portuguese Republic, Dr Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. As part of this, a video of de Sousa was played during the opening ceremony in which he welcomed attendees and highlighted the country’s rich cultural heritage. “Portugal is not just a country with a long and important history, but one with a bright future as well,” de Sousa said. “I wish you not only an unforgetta- ble stay in this country, but also hope that you will come back soon to get to know our culture better,” he added. © Brendan Day, DTI From left: Dr Susana Noronha and Dr Gil Alcoforado, co-chair and chair, respectively, of the 2019 EAO congress, at the opening ceremony. The President of EAO, Prof. Hen- ning Schliephake, followed, also ad- dressing the crowd via a pre-re- corded video. The focus then turned to Alcoforado and Dr Susana Noronha, co-chair of the congress, who spoke about what they hoped to achieve under this year’s theme of “The bridge to the future”. Alcoforado thanked the mem- bers of the EAO congress and scien- tific committees, stating, “It is only through their tireless work that we can have such a large attendance from such a wide range of coun- tries”. Over 4,000 attendees overall from more than 80 countries are ex- pected to attend the congress, ac- cording to a press release from the EAO. “This is the first time the scien- tific meeting is taking place in Lis- bon, making it an extra special occa- sion,” said Noronha. “I sincerely hope that this meeting exceeds your ex- pectations and that you all have a fantastic congress.” “Using cell therapy for bone regeneration is promising” An interview with Prof. Kamal Mustafa, University of Bergen, by Franziska Beier, DTI. Prof. Kamal Mustafa from the De- partment of Clinical Dentistry at the University of Bergen in Norway is sponsoring and leading, together with Dr Cecilie Gjerde (University of Bergen) and Prof. Mariano Sanz (Com- plutense University of Madrid), a multicentre randomised controlled clinical trial (RCT) on stem cell bone building. This research is part of the European MAXIBONE project, which is investigating whether new jaw- bone prior to placement of dental im- plants can be grown with stem cell technology. At EAO 2019, Mustafa presented his research group’s work in a session that covered the topic of “New avenues in implant dentistry”. He shared insights into MAXIBONE with Dental Tribune International. Prof. Mustafa, you gave a lecture titled “Are stem cells the implants of the future?” On what did you focus during your presentation? The potential and value of stem cell-based therapies were explored in the early 1990s when therapeutically relevant tissue-supportive cells such as mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) were applied for the regeneration of skeletal tissue. This new approach using cell therapy for bone regeneration is prom- ising and could be used as an alterna- tive for the classic gold standard treat- ment with bone grafts. The promising data from a recent clinical trial in 11 patients in Bergen, as part of the EU REBORNE project, has paved the way for improved, well-designed trials utilising stem cells for mandible aug- mentation and alveolar reconstruction. MAXIBONE began at the start of 2018 and will be completed in 2021. What is the current status of the project? MAXIBONE aims to create per- sonalised bone regeneration by using culture-expanded autologous bone marrow stem cells and biomaterials. The four-year project started with European funding of € 6 million. The large consortium is coordinated by Prof. Pierre Layrolle from the Univer- sity of Nantes in France and me and gathers 12 partners from six Euro- pean countries, including academic and research institutes, cell therapy units and companies, among them the global leader of dental implants. In the project, an RCT of 150 pa- tients will compare the safety and ef- ficacy of autologous cultured stem cells and calcium phosphate biomate- rials with autologous bone grafting in alveolar bone augmentation prior to dental implants. In the previous Euro- pean project, REBORNE, the clinical safety of this regenerative strategy was demonstrated in 11 patients. How does the process work exactly? Do the stem cells have to be autolo- gous? Yes, autologous cells are har- vested from bone marrow, expanded and cultured for two weeks in two cell manufacturing centres in Ger- many and France. Afterwards, they are delivered to the eight clinical cen- tres in five European countries and implanted in patients in combination with biomaterials. The procedure has been reported in our recent publica- tion by Gjerde et al. from 2018, which was part of the EU REBORNE pro- ject.1 Prof. Kamal Mustafa presenting at EAO 2019. marrow stem cells expanded suc- cessfully in the laboratory and, com- bined with synthetic bone substitute biomaterial in the patient to aug- ment mandibular bone, induced sig- nificant new bone formation. The re- generated bone volume was ade- quate for dental implant installation. Healing was uneventful. The pa- tients were satisfied with the aes- thetic and functional outcomes. No side effects were observed. Is this stem cell treatment less inva- sive than the standard bone trans- plant? The patients tolerated the treat- ment very well, as described and re- ported in the previously mentioned study. The data generated from the clinical trial demonstrated that bone Could this method of bone replace- ment be used for other areas of the human body? Yes, a good example of using the method to repair long-bone defects has been demonstrated and reported in a study by Gómez-Barrena et al. from 2018.2 This interventional cli- 2 28 th EAO Annual Scientific Meeting © DTI nical trial was also part of the REBORNE project and performed to evaluate the safety and feasibility of autologous expanded MSCs from bone marrow associated with bioce- ramic (microporous biphasic calcium phosphate granules; MBCP+, Biomat- lante) scaffolds in patients with long- bone delayed unions and non-unions (after a minimum of three months from acute fracture). No severe ad- verse events related to the bone mar- row MSCs were reported. The con- struct of stem cells combined with the biomaterial which was used in our maxillofacial clinical trial was surgically and successfully delivered to the non-unions, and 26 of 28 treated patients were found to be ra- diologically healed at one year after treatment. References: 1 Gjerde C, Mustafa K, Hellem S, Rojewski M, Gjengedal H, Yassin MA, Feng X, Skaale S, Berge T, Rosen A, Shi XQ, Ahmed AB, Gjert- sen BT, Schrezenmeier H, Layrolle P. Cell ther- apy induced regeneration of severely atrophied mandibular bone in a clinical trial. Stem Cell Res Ther. 2018 Aug 9;9(1):213. doi: 10.1186/ s13287-018-0951-9. 2 Gómez-Barrena E, Padilla-Eguiluz NG, Aven- daño-Solá C, Payares-Herrera C, Velasco-Iglesias A, Torres F, Rosset P, Gebhard F, Baldini N, Ru- bio-Suarez JC, García-Rey E, Cordero-Ampuero J, Vaquero-Martin J, Chana F, Marco F, García-Coi- radas J, Caba-Dessoux P, de la Cuadra P, Herni- gou P, Flouzat-Lachaniette CH, Gouin F, Mainard D, Laffosse JM, Kalbitz M, Marzi I, Südkamp N, Stöckle U, Ciapetti G, Donati DM, Zagra L, Paz- zaglia U, Zarattini G, Capanna R, Catani F. A multicentric, open-label, randomized, compara- tive clinical trial of two different doses of ex- panded hBM-MSCs plus biomaterial versus il- iac crest autograft, for bone healing in nonun- ions after long bone fractures: study protocol. Stem Cells Int. 2018 Feb 22;2018:6025918. doi: 10.1155/2018/6025918.