Cytotoxicity of Dental Implants: The Effects of Ultrastructural Elements

Purpose: In this in vitro study, the purpose was to assess the cytotoxicity profiles of seven commercial dental implant materials by using cell culture methods on an osteoblastic cell line. Materials and Methods: The microstructure of seven commercial dental implants (each given a letter code) was investigated via scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive x-ray analysis. Medium extracts were collected on the first and fifth days for each group and tested using MC3T3-E1 cell line. Cytotoxicity was evaluated with Xcelligance System and XTT reagent, and apoptosis was determined by Annexin-V staining. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey's multiple range tests were used for statistical analyses. In all tests, P was set as .05. Results: ANOVA results disclosed that Ti (P = .001), Na (P = .001), Ca (P = .019), Al (P = .024), and P (P = .020) amounts were significantly different between test materials. Cytotoxicity and apoptosis analyses revealed that implant materials (C) and (E) were the materials with the lowest cell vitality and the highest apoptosis rates among the test materials. Phosphorus was the only element that presented the highest amount in C and E (14.23% and 12.29%, respectively) compared with the other implant materials tested. (F) and (G) had favorable results for all experiments. Conclusion: The results suggest that pure dental implant materials with a lower number of additional elements may possess fewer cytotoxic effects than the other implant materials tested in this study. Keywords: cell culture, cytotoxicity, dental implants, energy-dispersive x-ray analysis, osteoblasts