Establishment of a Captive Cave Nectar Bat (Eonycteris spelaea) Breeding Colony in Singapore

Bats are known natural reservoirs of several highly pathogenic zoonotic viruses, including Hendra virus, Nipah virus, rabies virus, SARS-like coronaviruses, and suspected ancestral reservoirs of SARS-CoV-2 responsible for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The capacity to survive infections of highly pathogenic agents without severe disease, together with many other unique features, makes bats an ideal animal model for studying the regulation of infection, cancer, and longevity, which is likely to translate into human health outcomes. A key factor that limits bat research is lack of breeding bat colonies. To address this need, a captive bat colony was established in Singapore from 19 wild-caught local cave nectar bats. The bats were screened for specific pathogens before the start of captive breeding. Custom-made cages and an optimized diet inclusive of Wombaroo dietary formula, liquid diet, and supplement of fruits enabled the bats to breed prolifically in our facility. Cages are washed daily and disinfected once every fortnight. Bats are observed daily to detect any sick bat or abnormal behavior. In addition, bats undergo a thorough health check once every 3 to 4 mo to check on their overall wellbeing, perform sampling, and document any potential pregnancy. The current colony houses over 80 bats that are successfully breeding, providing a valuable resource for research in Singapore and overseas.

A Porcine Model Using Adipose Stem Cell-Loaded Scaffolds for Alveolar Ridge Augmentation

Tooth loss greatly affects a person's quality of life and many turn to dental implants to replace lost teeth. The success of a dental implant depends on the amount of alveolar bone supporting the implant, and thus, bone augmentation is often necessary to preserve or build up bone volume in the alveolar ridge. Bone can be augmented with autogenous bone, allografts, or xenografts, but the limitations of such natural bone grafts prompt researchers to develop synthetic scaffolds supplemented with cells and/or bioactive agents as alternative bone grafts. The translation of these combination scaffolds from the laboratory to the clinic requires reliable experimental models that can simulate the clinical conditions in human patients. In this article, we describe the use of a porcine alveolar defect model as a platform to evaluate the efficacy of a novel combination of a three-dimensional-printed polycaprolactone-tricalcium phosphate (PCL-TCP) scaffold and adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (AD-MSCs) in lateral alveolar augmentation. The surgical protocol for the defect creation and regenerative surgery, as well as analytical methods to determine the extent of tissue regeneration, are described and discussed.