Periodontal disease is a significant burden for oral health, causing progressive and irreversible damage to the support structure of the tooth. This complex structure, the periodontium, is composed of interconnected soft and mineralised tissues, posing a challenge for regenerative approaches. Materials combining silicon and lithium are widely studied in periodontal regeneration, as they stimulate bone repair via silicic acid release while providing regenerative stimuli through lithium activation of the Wnt/β-catenin pathway. Yet, existing materials for combined lithium and silicon release have limited control over ion release amounts and kinetics. Porous silicon can provide controlled silicic acid release, inducing osteogenesis to support bone regeneration. Prelithiation, a strategy developed for battery technology, can introduce large, controllable amounts of lithium within porous silicon, but yields a highly reactive material, unsuitable for biomedicine. This work debuts a strategy to lithiate porous silicon nanowires (LipSiNs) which generates a biocompatible and bioresorbable material. LipSiNs incorporate lithium to between 1% and 40% of silicon content, releasing lithium and silicic acid in a tailorable fashion from days to weeks. LipSiNs combine osteogenic, cementogenic and Wnt/β-catenin stimuli to regenerate bone, cementum and periodontal ligament fibres in a murine periodontal defect.

Centre for Craniofacial and Regenerative Biology King's College London London SE1 9RT UK

Centre for Oral Clinical and Translational Sciences King's College London London SE1 9RT UK

Department of Chemistry University College London London WC1H 0AJ UK

Department of Dental Materials and NMPA Key Laboratory for Dental Materials Peking University School and Hospital of Stomatology Beijing 100081 PR China

Department of Materials Imperial College London London SW72AZ UK

Department of Oral Pathology Peking University School and Hospital of Stomatology Beijing 100081 PR China

Department of Physics and Astronomy University of Turku Turku 20014 Finland

HarwellXPS Research Complex at Harwell Rutherford Appleton Labs Didcot OX11 0DE UK

Institute of Animal Physiology and Genetics Czech Academy of Sciences Brno 602 00 Czech Republic

Institute of Pharmaceutical Science King's College London London SE1 9NH UK

London Centre for Nanotechnology King's College London London WC2R 2LS UK

Otto Schott Institute of Materials Research Friedrich Schiller University Jena Jena 07743 Germany

Postnova Analytics GmbH Rankinestr 1 Landsberg am Lech 86899 Germany

School of Chemical and Process Engineering University of Leeds Leeds LS2 9JT UK

School of Veterinary Medicine Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences University of Surrey Guildford GU2 7XH UK

The Francis Crick Institute London NW11AT UK

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