Influence of Self-polymerizing Dental Resins on MMP-2 AND MMP-9 Genes

Objective: The present in vitro study aimed to evaluating the potential cytotoxicity of self-polymerizing dental resins on human gingival fibroblasts (HGFs) isolated from healthy patients. Moreover, the study assessed the quantitative gene expression of matrix metalloproteinases (MMP) -2 and -9 in HGFs stimulated with the same resins. Method: Three different self-polymerizing dental resins (JetKit, Duralay, Unifast III) were tested. HGFs were isolated from fragments of gingival tissues removed from healthy patients. The determination of cytotoxic activity on HGFs was estimated by standard MTT-test (3,[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2]2,5 difeniltetrazolium bromide). Differently, the quantitative gene expression analyses of MMP-2 and MMP-9 were carried out with QRT-PCR on a StepOne System. The quantification was made in 48-well plates with a TaqMan Universal MasterMix. Statistical analysis of data were performed by ANOVA. Result: After 24h MTT assay showed that all the materials tested did not cause a significant cytotoxic effect in HGFs. Moreover, the QRT-PCR, MMP-2 and MMP-9 genes were up-regulated in HGFs treated with all the tested self-polymerizing dental resins compared to the controls. The cells treated with Duralay showed an overxpression of MMP-2 compared to cells treated with JetKit and Unifast III; coversely, the MMP-9 gene was over-expressed in HGFs treated with JetKit compared to cells treated with Duralay and Unifast III. Conclusion: Our results suggest that the tested dental resins caused a low degree of cytotoxicy, nevertheless they showed the ability to modulate the transcriptional regulation of MMP-2 and MMP-9 genes in HGFs.