Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA) is a fine pulp capping material. But there are few researches about the cytotoxicity of MTA to odontoblasts in primary culture.
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the cytotoxicity of MTA to mouse odontoblast-like cells in primary culture compared with Dycal.
METHODS: The mandibular first molar tooth germs from 19 days fetal rats were taken out. The dental papillae was isolated and cultured by using tissue block culture. The dental papillae cells which had similar morphology with odontoblasts were selected by filter paper and cultured continually. The cells were identified by morphology observation and the mRNA expression of dentin sialophosphoprotein. The cytotoxic of odontoblast-like cells cultured in vitro was detected by using Cell Counting Kit-8 assay, after the cultured odontoblast-like cells were co-cultured with the blank DMEM culture medium or the culture medium containing MTA or Dycal for 2, 4 and 6 days .
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Under microscope observation, the cultured cells showed fusiform, long triangle and pyriform, and unilateral longer protuberance. Besides, the cells had specific dentin sialophosphoprotein expression. In terms of cytotoxicity, the number of cells in MTA group was increased gradually with the culture time prolonged (P < 0.05), and the cell proliferation was good. The cell proliferation in Dycal group was significantly less than that in the blank control group (P < 0.05). These findings suggest that compared with the Dycal, the cytotoxicity of MTA to odontoblast-like cells is smaller. MTA has good biocompatibility.