Bei Chang

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Professor at Jilin University

Dentine is a major component of teeth and is responsible for many of their functions, such as mastication and neural sensation/transduction. Over the past decades, numerous studies have focused on dentine development and regeneration using a variety of research models, including in vivo, ex vivo and in vitro models. In vivo animal models play a cru...

Objectives: To evaluate the role of Piezo1 in the malocclusion-induced osteoarthritic cartilage of the temporomandibular joint. Methods: A temporomandibular joint osteoarthritis model was established using a unilateral anterior crossbite in vivo, and cartilage degeneration and Piezo1 expression were observed by histological and immunohistochemic...

As a new type of injectable biomaterials, functional microspheres have attracted increasing attention in tissue regeneration because they possess some advantageous properties compared to other biomaterials, including hydrogels. A variety of bio-inspired microspheres with unique structures and properties have been developed as cellular carriers and...

Dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) have the potential to polarize, differentiate, and form tubular dentin under certain conditions. However, the factors that initiate and regulate DPSC polarization and its underlying mechanism remain unclear. Identification of the factors that control DPSC polarization is a prerequisite for tubular dentin regeneration....

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are emerging as a novel class of molecular targets and therapeutics to control gene expression for tissue repair and regeneration. However, a safe and effective transfection of miRNAs to cells has been a major barrier to their applications. In this work, a multifunctional polyplex micelle named PPP-RGI was developed as a non-vira...

Bone is composed of dense and solid cortical bone and honeycomb-like trabecular bone. Although cortical bone provides the majority mechanical strength of a bone, there are few studies focusing on cortical bone repair or regeneration. Osteons (the Haversian system) form structural and functional units of cortical bone. In recent years, emerging evid...

Dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) are the primary stem cell source for regenerative endodontics. DPSCs need to undergo a polarization process and retain the permanent polarization status to perform the function of odontoblasts. However, the factors that control DPSC polarization and its underlying mechanism remain unknown. In this study, we establishe...

Background and objective: The Sharpey's fibers of periodontal ligament (PDL) anchor the PDL to alveolar bone and cementum and are essential for the function of PDL. While qualitative analyses of the Sharpey's fibers have been widely explored, a comprehensive quantitative characterization of the Sharpey's fibers is not available. In this work, we s...

Cell polarity identifies the asymmetry of a cell. Various types of cells, including odontoblasts and epithelial cells, polarize to fulfil their destined functions. Odontoblast polarization is a prerequisite and fundamental step for tooth development and tubular dentin formation. Current knowledge of odontoblast polarization, however, is very limite...

Cells exhibit distinct 3D morphologies in vivo, and recapitulation of physiological cell morphologies in vitro is pivotal not only to elucidate many fundamental biological questions, but also to develop new approaches for tissue regeneration and drug screening. However, conventional cell culture methods in either a 2D petri dish or a 3D scaffold of...

Understanding cell-material interactions is a prerequisite for the development of bio-inspired materials for tissue regeneration. While nanofibrous biomaterials have been widely used in tissue regeneration, the effects of nanofibrous architecture on stem cell behaviors are largely ambiguous because the biomaterial systems used for nanofiber-cell in...

In article number 1700738, Xiaohua Liu and co-workers develop biomimetic 3D matrices with highly-organized tubular architecture to guide stem cell migration and differentiation. When using this tubular matrix as a scaffold, functional tubular dentin is successfully regenerated with the same well-organized microstructure as its natural counterpart....

Micropatterning is a widely used powerful tool to create highly ordered microstructures on material surfaces. However, due to technical limitations, the integration of micropatterned microstructures into bioinspired 3D scaffolds to successfully regenerate well-organized functional tissues is not achieved. In this work, a unique maskless micropatter...

Chronic periodontitis, a common oral disease, usually results in irreversible bone resorption. Bone regeneration is a complex process between bone‑forming activity of osteoblasts and bone‑resorbing activity of osteoclasts, and still remains a challenge for physicians clinically. A previous study demonstrated that the mechanistic target of rapamycin...

Injectable scaffolds are appealing for tissue regeneration because they offer many advantages over pre-formed scaffolds. This article provides a comprehensive review of the injectable scaffolds currently being investigated for dental and craniofacial tissue regeneration. First, we provide an overview of injectable scaffolding materials, including n...

The emerging photoluminescent carbon-based nanomaterials are promising in various fields besides cell imaging and carrier transport. Carbon nanomaterials with specific biological functions, however, are rarely investigated. Aspirin is a very common anti-inflammatory medication to relieve aches and pains. In this study, we have tried to create a car...

Treating bone defects is still a challenge in clinical practice. Recently, researchers used human bone morphogenetic protein 2 gene (hBMP-2) to induce osteoblast differentiation and promote new bone formation. However, an efficient way to deliver hBMP-2 still needs to be created. In this study, we evaluated whether chitosan–polyethylenimine (CS–PEI...