Cytotoxicity of four denture adhesives on human gingival fibroblast cells

Abstract

Objective. The purpose of this study was to compare the cytotoxicity of four denture adhesives on human gingival fibroblast cells. Materials and methods. Immortalized human gingival fibroblasts were cultured with one of four different denture adhesives, Polident, Protefix, Staydent or Denfix-A, which was placed in insert dishes (10% w/v concentration) for 48 h. The MTT [3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide] assay and flow cytometric apoptosis assay were used to evaluate cell viability and apoptosis rates. The fibroblasts were also examined under a scanning electron microscope. Results. The MTT assay showed that all denture adhesives resulted in a significantly lower cell viability compared to the control cells propagated in normal culture medium (p < 0.05), with Staydent demonstrating the lowest cell viability. According to the flow cytometric apoptosis assay, Staydent and Protefix showed significantly higher apoptosis rates than the control group (p < 0.05), whereas Polident and Denfix-A did not demonstrate any significant differences (p > 0.05). Staydent showed the highest apoptosis rate. Scanning electron microscopy showed that the cells of the Staydent group underwent cytoplasmic membrane shrinkage, with cell free areas containing residual fragments of the membrane of dead cells. Conclusions. The four denture adhesives evaluated in this study imparted cytotoxic effects on human gingival fibroblast cells. Staydent showed the highest toxicity.

Key Words:

• cytotoxicity
• denture adhesive
• flow cytometric apoptosis assay
• human gingival fibroblast
• MTT assay
• scanning electron microscope

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (2012-009268) and a grant (2012-12172KFDA501) from Korea Food & Drug Administration and 04-2013-0073 from the SNUDH Research Fund.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.