Chemical and morphological characterization interaction, with SAOS2 cells, of calcium-silicate cements doped with fluoride for endodontic application.

Calcium silicate cements, such as mineral trioxide aggregates (MTAs) and other materials based on Portland cements, have been recently developed as root-end filling materials. The final goal of our study was the development of a new class of materials derived from calcium silicate cements and incorporating fluoride as doping agent. To this purpose, we comparatively investigated the in vitro bioactivity of three calcium-silicate cements derived from modified white portland cement: wTC (white tetrasilicate cement), FTC (wTC added with fluoride because of its mitogenic effect on osteoblasts [13]) and Pro-Root MTA, a commercial cement used as reference material. Bismuth oxide was included in all cements as radioopacifier. The cements were aged for different times (from 1 to 28 days), at 37°C, in a phosphate-containing physiological solution, i.e. Dulbecco’s Phosphate buffered saline, DPBS. ATR/FT-IR and micro-Raman spectroscopy were used to investigate the presence of deposits on the surface of the cements and the composition changes of the cement as a function of the ageing time. The biocompatibility of the three cements as well as AH-Plus, tested as potentially toxic composite, was comparatively evaluated. Both the WTC and FTC cements showed a good bioactivity in DPBS; the experimental FTC cement appeared to form a meanly thicker apatite deposit than WTC and MTA, especially at short ageing times. In the light of these results, a beneficial effect of fluoride ion on bioactivity cannot be excluded. Further investigations are in plan to gain more insight into this subject. The analyzed cements have adequate biocompatibility and are able to support cell attachment, growth, and cell-surface interactions. These properties make these cements potential endodontic sealers and root-end filling materials.