A Study on the Application to the Pulp Capping Agent of a DNA Film

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Presently, vital pulpotomy using calcium hydroxide is widely performed in general clinical treatment, and dentin bridge formation is considered an indication of its success. However, since calcium hydroxide is a strong alkali, it has been reported to cause extensive necrosis in pulp tissue. Furthermore, the formation of new, hard tissue such as a dentin bridge is considered to indicate that toxic stimulation has been applied to the pulp. If pulp tissue could be preserved with less damage through the use of a biocompatible material, it would be considered to be extremely significant. Therefore, we investigated the use of artificial lipid-modified DNA, which has been reported to be moderately biodegradable, non-antigenic, and antibiotic, as such a material. Fukushima et al. showed that artificial lipid-modified DNA is a promising biodegradable biological material, and it is expected to be applied to dentistry. In this study, we evaluated its use as a pulp dressing material after vital pulpotomy. Since preliminary experiments revealed problems with the manipulability of DNA film itself, we applied uncoated and DNA-coated hydroxyapatite to pulpotomy surfaces of the bilateral upper and lower canine teeth in beagles and histopathologically examined pulp tissue changes. In the pulp treated with DNA-coated hydroxyapatite, inflammatory cell infiltration and calcification were milder than in those treated with uncoated hydroxyapatite. These findings suggest that DNA is not toxic to pulp tissue and even exhibits an anti-inflammatory activity. Moreover, as DNA can intercalate antibiotics and osteogenesis inducers, it may be applied in the future as a pulp dressing agent.