Assessment of Gingival Fibroblast Attachment to Root Surfaces Restored with Three Different Dental Materials: An in Vitro Study

Background and aims. The aim of this study was to compare the biocompatibility of calcium-enriched mixture ce-ment (CEM), composite resin and nano-particled mineral trioxide aggregate (NP-MTA) using human gingival fibroblasts.
Materials and methods. A comparative in vitro cell culture study was carried out using 60 single-rooted teeth which were assigned to the following four groups: 1) untreated healthy group (control); 2) restored with composite resin; 3) CEM cement; 4) NP-MTA. The MTT assay was used to measure the viability of fibroblasts attached to each specimen and scan-ning electron microscopy (SEM) was used for describing cell morphology.
Results. After 24 hours of incubation, the survival rates for composite resin and NP-MTA were 74.1% and 76.9%, respec-tively, which were significantly lower than the value in the control group, while both were equally biocompatible. No sta-tistically significant difference was found between the control group and CEM cement samples (94.3%). After 3 days of incubation, some increases in the viability of fibroblasts were detected in the composite resin and NP-MTA groups, with their survival rates being 89% and 93%, respectively. Conversely, in the CEM cement group, the survival rate decreased to 80.7%, which was significantly lower than that in the control group (P = 0.0001).
Conclusion. The results of in vitro tests indicated that on days 1, 3 and 5 after incubation, composite resin, CEM cement and NP-MTA exhibited acceptable biocompatibility, provided they were allowed to set for 24 hours before exposure to the cells.