Reaction of cultured pulp cells to eight different cements based on glass ionomers.

A comparative study was carried out to determine the cytotoxicity of eight different glass-ionomer cements by means of cell culture. Only fibroblast-like cells from the pulp of the same subcultures were used. Factors for the evaluation of the biological tolerance were, first, adhesion of cells to the slides as well as to the material, second, relative growth rates of cultures, and, in addition, cytomorphology. The cultured cells reacted quite differently to the glass-ionomer cements tested. The results imply that cytotoxic substances are eluted from some products even after a hardening period of 48 hours. In contrast, three of the glass-ionomer cements tested had only slight cytotoxic effects on the cultured pulp cells.