The assessment of cytotoxicity and alkaline phosphatase levels of herbal and antioxidant based vital pulp therapy agents

Aim: The objective of this in-vitro study was to assess the cytotoxicity and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity of curcumin and aloin extracted from Curcuma longa and Aloe vera, an antioxidant mix (AM) and mineral triokside aggregate (MTA) on human dental pulp stem cells. Material-Methods: Human dental pulp stem cells (Lonza Group, Switzerland),curcumin(Sigma-Aldrich,USA),aloin(Sigma-Aldrich,USA),AM(BayerAG, Germany), ProRoot MTA (Dentsply,USA) were used in the study. 2.5-6.75-12.5-25-50 µg/ml's of curcumin/aloin, 25-50-75-100 %'s of AM/MTA were prepared; unincubated pulp cells were assessed as controls.Cytotoxicity of all doses/concentrations was analyzed at 1,2,3,7 days by WST-1 test; and 2.5-6.75 µg/ml's of curcumin and aloin, 25-50%'s of AM/MTA were assessed for ALP activity at 7-14 days by ELISA test. Data was statistically analyzed by OneWayAnova, Tukey and Sidak tests at Graphpad Prism 6. Results: The findings have shown that 2.5 µg/ml of curcumin, all doses of aloin, 25-50 %'s of MTA increased the cell proliferation significantly (p<0.05) on 1st day. Curcumin, aloin, MTA inhibited the cell viability as dose/concentration and exposure time have increased; and AM has exhibited cytotoxic effects (p<0.05) at all concentrations/time intervals. No significant increases (p>0.05) in ALP assays of all materials were found at 7-14 days. Conclusion: Data of this study revealed that 2.5-6.75 µg/ml's of curcumin/aloin and 25-50 %'s of MTA have increased pulp cell proliferation; and none of the materials have increased ALP activity significantly at 7-14 days. It's concluded that future in-vitro tests analyzing the long-term cytotoxicity and ALP activity of curcumin and aloin, recommended as alternative vital pulp agents, are needed.