Tetsu Takahashi, DDS., Ph.D
Director, Department of OMF, Southern Tohoku Fukushima Hospital
Professor Emeritus, Div. of OMF, Tohoku University Graduate School of
Dentistry
Octacalcium phosphate (OCP) has been suggested to be a precursor of biological apatite crystal in bone and tooth. We have demonstrated that synthetic OCP facilitates bone regeneration in vitro and in vivo.
Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that OCP and collagen composite (OCP/Collagen) enhances bone regeneration more than OCP itself in vivo. OCP has a higher solubility than be-ta tricalcium phosphate (be-ta TCP) or hydroxyapatite (HA) therefore more absorbable than be-ta TCP or HA in vivo.
It has been shown that OCP/Collagen facilitates bone regeneration in comparison with OCP itself in critical-sized bone defects of rat calvaria as well as dogs.
From these results, the following things became clear: 1) OCP/Collagen could cause effective bone regeneration without any factors, 2) bone regeneration of OCP/Collagen was better than that of other bone substitute materials, 3) OCP/Collagen was good absorbability and expected physiological bone remodeling, and 4) because of its good handling, it was easy to use. Recently, we used OCP/Collagen in human bone defects in the first clinical trial. In 2019, OCP/Collagen was permitted by PMDA (Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Agency ) in Japan (Japanese FDA counterpart). Now, it is commercially available as Bonarc® (Straumann Japan and Morita Inc.).
Our studies demonstrated that Bonarc® could use the bone reconstruction of various jaw defects by enhancing bone regeneration and could serve as a good bone substitution material for oral and maxillofacial surgeries.
