assessment of gingival fibroblast attachment to root surfaces restored with three different dental materials: an in vitro study

background and aims. the aim of this study was to compare the biocompatibility of calcium-enriched mixture ce-ment (cem), composite resin and nano-particled mineral trioxide aggregate (np-mta) using human gingival fibroblasts. materials and methods. a comparative in vitro cell culture study was carried out using 60 single-rooted teeth which were assigned to the following four groups: 1) untreated healthy group (control); 2) restored with composite resin; 3) cem cement; 4) np-mta. the mtt assay was used to measure the viability of fibroblasts attached to each specimen and scan-ning electron microscopy (sem) was used for describing cell morphology. results. after 24 hours of incubation, the survival rates for composite resin and np-mta were 74.1% and 76.9%, respec-tively, which were significantly lower than the value in the control group, while both were equally biocompatible. no sta-tistically significant difference was found between the control group and cem cement samples (94.3%). after 3 days of incubation, some increases in the viability of fibroblasts were detected in the composite resin and np-mta groups, with their survival rates being 89% and 93%, respectively. conversely, in the cem cement group, the survival rate decreased to 80.7%, which was significantly lower than that in the control group (p = 0.0001). conclusion. the results of in vitro tests indicated that on days 1, 3 and 5 after incubation, composite resin, cem cement and np-mta exhibited acceptable biocompatibility, provided they were allowed to set for 24 hours before exposure to the cells.