Assessment of the skin irritation potential of a kit for root canal permanent cementation, using normal human keratinocyte cell line as an alternative to animal testing

A canal sealing cement must show high biocompatibility and fill completely root canal. Sometimes some components of such sealers can act as irritative stimulus for buccal mucosa. Novel alternative testing strategies are requested for evaluating cellular specific adverse effects. Cefinal Endocem® is a dental cement that undergo to polymerization by two different solvent procedures: liquid based Eugenol, usually employed in routine, and Liquid “Plastic” EBA that is recommended for Eugenol sensitization cases. The biocompatibility, in terms of in vitro cytotoxicity potential, of these two different polymerized cements was assessed on NCTC2544 normal human keratinocyte cell line by determining LDH release, and optical observation of cultures during experimental exposures for 30, 60, 180 and 360 minutes. In our in vitro model both kind of cements demonstrated a good biocompatibility, even if the cement polymerized with plastic EBA showed a low decrease of viability index after 30 minutes, that did not decrease further after 60 minutes exposure.