Investigation of the radiopacity and cytotoxicity of ALBODENT – novel strontium carbonate incorporated calcium silicate based dental cement

Abstract

Introduction Calcium silicate (CS) dental cements have numerous clinical indications in dentistry including pulp capping, root end surgery, perforation repair and apexification/apexogenesis treatment. Materials and methods Novel CS based dental cement with incorporation of SrCO3 radiopacifier named ALBO-DENT was used as an experimental cement material while Portland cement (Aalborg, Denmark) and ProRoot MTA (Tulsa Dental, USA) were used as controls. The radiopacity evaluation was performed using digital Trophy Radiographic system with an intention to precisely determine the minimum of radiopaque agent needed to confer to ISO radiopacity requirement. Thereafter, biocompatibility of material was tested in in vitro conditions in mouse fibrosarcoma L929 cell culture treated with materials’ extracts. Cell morphology was observed using phase-contrast microscopy, while cell viability was measured using crystal violet (CV) and 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assays. Results Radiopacity evaluation revealed that 30%wt addition of SrCO3 was necessary to achieve satisfactory radiopacity (3.45 mm Al). Cytotoxicity analysis using CV and MTT assays revealed that pure extracts of ALBO-DENT presented superior biocompatibility when compared to PC and MTA controls while serial dilutions of experimental cements’ extracts as well as that of PC and MTA did not influence L929 cell viability. Conclusions Novel formulation of CS cement – ALBO-DENT presented satisfactory radiopacity and adequate biocompatibility.

Uvod Kalcijum-silikatni (KS) dentalni cementi se koriste u brojnim kliničkim indikacijama u stomatologiji koje uključuju direktno prekrivanje pulpe, retrogradnu hirurgiju korena zuba, lečenje perforacija i apeksogenezu/apeksifikaciju. Materijali i metode U istraživanju je korišćen novosintetisani cement na bazi KS sa dodatkom SrCO3 kao kontrastnog agensa ALBO-DENTA, dok su kao kontrola korišćeni cement Portland (PC, Aalborg, Denmark) i ProRoot MTA (MTA, Tulsa Dental, USA). Rendgenokontrasnost je ispitivana digitalnom radiografijom primenom aparata Trophy, sa namerom da se precizno odredi minimum kontrastnog agensa koji zadovoljava zahteve standarda ISO za rendgenkontrastnost. Biokompatibilnost materijala je ispitana in vitro, u kulturi ćelija mišjeg fibrosarkoma L929 tretiranoj ekstraktima ispitivanih materijala. Ćelijska morfologija je praćena upotrebom fazno-kontrastne mikroskopije, dok je vijabilnost ćelija utvrđivana kristal violet (KV) i 3-(4,5-dimetiltiazol-2-yl)-2,5-difenfl-tetrazolium bromid (MTT) esejima. Rezultati Ispitivanje rendgenkontrastnosti je pokazalo da dodatak 30% SrCO3 dovodi do zadovoljavajućeg kontrasta materijala (3,45 mm Al). Analiza citotoksičnosti KV i MTT metodom je pokazala da čisti ekstrakt ALBO-DENTA pokazuje bolju biokompatibilnost u poređenju sa PC i MTA, dok serijska razblaženja ekstrakta ispitivanog cementa, kao i PC i MTA, nisu uticala na vijabilitet ćelija L929. Zaključci Novi cement na bazi KS – ALBO-DENT pokazao je zavodovoljavajuću rendgenkontrastnost i odgovarajuću biokompatibilnost.